The Songs of Robert Burns

The Songs of Robert Burns

The Songs of Robert Burns

edited by

Donald A.Low

London

First published 1993 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/. © 1993 Donald A.Low All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data The Songs of Robert Burns. I. Low, Donald A. (Donald Alexander) 821.6 ISBN 0-203-99111-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-415-03414-0 (Print Edition)

For S.

Contents

Preface

vi

Song Texts and Music

vii

Note on the Music David Johnson List of Common Words

Introduction Songs and Notes

Select Bibliography Appendix 1: Song Arrangements Peter Davidson Appendix 2: Attributions in The Scots Musical Museum Appendix 3: Two Early Songs

viii x

1 46

1032 1035 1054

1055

Sources of Illustrations

1057

Index of First Lines

1058

Index of Tunes

1066

Index of Short Song Titles

1073

Preface

In compiling the first comprehensive and unexpurgated modern edition of all discoverable songs by Burns, I have incurred many debts of friendship. I wish to thank Jean Redpath for showing me time and again what it is to interpret with true skill and good humour traditional airs and the words which go with them: and Douglas Gray of Scottish Records, for expertly producing four successive cassettes of Burns Songs from ‘The Scots Musical Museum’ Sung by Jean Redpath. By putting their house in Dumfries at the disposal of the Low family in the summer of 1988, Wilson and Irene Ogilvie gave very real encouragement; as did Professor and Mrs G.Ross Roy, who welcomed us to South Carolina in 1990 and made it possible for me to consult the best printed Burns collection in North America, as first W.Ormiston Roy Fellow at the Thomas Cooper Library at Columbia. Roger Mortimer and his colleagues in the Rare Book Room of the Thomas Cooper Library of the University of South Carolina were unfailingly helpful, as were Gordon Willis and all staff at Stirling University Library, and Ruzena Wood of the National Library of Scotland’s Music Room. I also wish to thank Mary Ellen Brown, Ron Gonnella, John Inglis, Kirsteen McCue, Carol McGuirk, James Mackay, Patrick Scott and Ken Simpson, all of whom expressed interest in the edition. The responsibility for errors is mine alone. The award of a Leverhulme Research Grant enabled me to undertake research on Burns’s songs; I wish to thank the Leverhulme Trust for timely help. When the music text on which this edition is based threw up difficult problems, Dr Peter Davidson and Philip Maund came to my rescue in the most helpful and constructive way possible. Reviving an eighteenth-century tradition of scholarship, Peter Davidson contributed from the University of Leiden an original essay on Song Arrangements, included as Appendix 1. I also owe a large debt to Dr David Johnson for generously sharing as musical copy-editor of The Songs of Robert Burns his unrivalled knowledge of eighteenth-century Scottish music. Marilyn Scott’s welcome assistance simplified more than one technical computing challenge. My colleagues in Stirling University’s Centre for Scottish Literature and Culture have helped by caring about Scotland’s heritage, and Andrew Wheatcroft and Penny Wheeler at Routledge have contributed essential professional skills. Above all, I wish to thank my wife Sheona, son Chris, and daughter Kirsty, for totally unselfish help and encouragement. No editor of songs could ask for more.

Song Texts and Music

Words of individual songs come from a variety of early sources, including the successive volumes of The Scots Musical Museum (1787–1803), George Thomson’s Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs (1793–1818), James Currie’s Works of Robert Burns (Liverpool, 1800), and R.H.Cromek’s Reliques of Robert Burns (1808). Other song texts are drawn from The Songs of Robert Burns, ed. James C.Dick (1903), from The Merry Muses of Caledonia, ed. James Barke and Sydney Goodsir Smith (Edinburgh, 1959), and from The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, ed. James Kinsley (Oxford, 1968). The note which immediately follows a song indicates where it was originally published, or a surviving manuscript location. Where a song is included in the Hastie MS, now in the British Library, Burns’s copy for volumes 3 and 4 of The Scots Musical Museum, this is shown. Other manuscripts consulted include the Alloway MS at the Birthplace Museum, Burns’s marginalia on his copy of the Caledonian Pocket Companion, also at Alloway, the Watson MS in the National Library of Scotland, the Huntington Library MSS, San Marino, California, and the Laing MSS in Edinburgh University Library. This edition does not record variants either in manuscript or print; but see a complete finding-list of Burns’s literary manuscripts in An Index of English Literary Manuscripts, vol. III 1700–1800, Part 1, compiled by Margaret M.Smith, 1986. The arrangement of songs is chronological, according to known or probable dates of composition. Tunes are taken mainly from late eighteenth-century sources, particularly Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum and Thomson’s Select Collection. Guidance in the selection of tunes has also been derived from J.C.Dick’s The Songs of Robert Burns, and Kinsley. Melodies alone are printed in the text, with the exception of nos. 28, 53, 91 and 115 (but see Appendix 1 for a discussion of arrangements, with examples). Tempo and expression headings are given throughout, where necessary added by the editor. Eighteenth-century appoggiaturas have been left in their original form, and in general we have aimed at presenting a clean musical text, in order to leave singers free to discover their own preferred interpretation.

Note on the Music

David Johnson

Establishing the correct music for Burns’s songs is sometimes tricky. With almost all his songs Burns specified which tune he wanted, and where they were published in The Scots Musical Museum his wishes were usually translated faithfully into print, give or take the odd printing error. But many of his songs were not published in his lifetime—most of those written for George Thomson’s Select Collection, and those that were obscene or politically radical—leaving room for all kinds of mistakes to occur. The Burns collections of Dick and Kinsley are magnificent pieces of scholarship, identifying the tunes that Burns asked for, and pointing out cases where Burns changed his mind, and where Thomson overruled Burns’s wishes. Unfortunately, scholarship is not enough here. Scottish traditional melodies exist in many varied forms: fiddlers alter tunes composed for bagpipe, singers alter ones composed for fiddle, and no two singers, in any case, sing them exactly the same. Which versions did Burns know, and like? The problem is compounded by two factors peculiar to the late eighteenth century. By 1780 or so, some Scots tunes had appeared in printed song-books for two generations, with a gradual accumulation of ‘art music’ decorations, though the simpler versions which had been generally current c.1700 were still going strong. What did Burns expect: decorated or plain? Burns also set words to popular English tunes from the late seventeenth century. For the editor, transcribing these tunes from period English books such as D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy may not produce the right answers since, by 1780, a century of Scots fiddling had moulded many of them into characteristically Scottish forms. What did Burns want here: Scots or English? In doubtful cases the best method is actually to try out the different versions in performance, and see what works best. The right answer is often obvious by its power to put the words across and make an audience laugh (or cry) in the right places. We do not claim to have found definitive answers in all the problematic cases, but we do believe that many of our tune versions—particularly to nos. 21, 24, 31, 49, 52, 110, 122, 253, 254, 270, 273 and 298—are better than those which have appeared in earlier collections. Burns, like any traditional singer, carried songs round in his head and sang them at all hours of the day. He thus saw a tune’s natural mode as an unaccompanied melodic line. This was so even when he was handling tunes by contemporary composers—Niel Gow (27/286, 62, 140), James Oswald (40/88, 43, 51, 97, 106, 166, 306), David Sillar (84),

William Marshall (96), Robert Riddell (100, 121), John Riddell (101), Lucy Johnston (119), John McGill (125), Malcolm Stewart (156), and James Millar (162/294)—whom he knew personally or by reputation. These composers were writing consciously in a ‘traditional’ Scottish style; they too would have seen their tunes as basically for unaccompanied use. The situation is quite different with the songs composed by Allan Masterton (28, 53, 115) and Johann Georg Christoph Schetky (91). Burns’s stay in Edinburgh in the late 1780s brought him into contact, for the first and only time in his life, with art-composers capable of writing original music, with essential instrumental accompaniment, to his poems. He took advantage of this. Many commentators have pointed out that Burns’s lyrics were turned into art-songs by later composers, notably Robert Schumann; but the process began with Masterton and Schetky, whom Burns met on socially equal terms at the Canongate Kilwinning Masonic Lodge in Edinburgh. Apropos of no. 91, Burns wrote to Clarinda on 24 January 1788: ‘Evening, 9 o’clock—I have been with Mr Schetky the musician, and he has set [your song] finely’. The song is characteristic of Schetky’s work, but is not enormously distinguished; Schetky was more interested in large-scale instrumental music. But Masterton’s three songs stand on a high plane, nos. 28 and 53 filled with the simplicity and pathetic sentiment of the Romantic era, no. 115 richly comic, and in nos. 28 and 115 Masterton also handles the problems of art-song in Lowland Scots with great credit. We hope that they, and the other unfamiliar pieces in this collection, will shed a new light on the breadth of Burns’s song writing.

Common Words

a’ all aboon above ae one aff off ain own amaist almost amang among ance once ane one auld old awa away ay(e) always baith both ben indoors/within bluid blood bon(n)ie attractive braw fine, splendid ca’ call canna cannot cauld cold countra country e’e, een eye, eyes fa’ fall frae from

gae, gaed, gaen, gaun go, went, gone gang go gar cause, make gat got gie give gude, guid good hae have frame home ilk(a) each/every ither other, each other ken know lang long loe love mair more maist most mak make maun must meikle/mickle/muckle much monie/mony many na, nae, nane, naething not, no, none, nothing onie/ony any owre over, too sae so sang song sic/sich such sma small tae to taen taken tak take thegither together tither the other twa two unco very, odd

wa’ wall wad would, would have wee small weel well wha/whase who, whose whare where why(i)les now, at times, sometimes yon that

Introduction Burns and song It is remarkable that after two hundred years a dozen or so of Burns’s songs are widely known through live performance and records. But the sometimes hackneyed favourites of Burns Suppers and recording companies are only a tiny sample of a large and impressive body of work. Burns wrote, revised, or collected some three hundred and seventy songs, most of which are scarcely known at all today, either to professed admirers of the Bard or to students of poetry and music at large. Lip-service to his name goes along with actual large-scale neglect. Even taking into account inevitable changes in musical taste, such a state of affairs cannot be justified. The present edition seeks to redress the balance by making available for the first time the words and melodies of all of Burns’s songs, along with glossing of Scots words and information about how and when the songs came to be written.1 Burns can be viewed in two quite different ways, as a poet who after achieving early success, subsequently failed to fulfil his promise, or as a poet and song-writer whose artistic development followed a natural curve towards two complementary forms of fulfilment. Much depends on whether song lyrics are considered, as in conventional literary criticism, to have less intrinsic value and worth than other forms of poetry on grounds of brevity; or by contrast are allowed to be the products of a combined or dual art form which imposes both melodic and poetic constraints.2 Burns’s earliest composition was a song, ‘O once I lov’d a bonnie lass’, and his interest in song-writing was lifelong. On the other hand, he achieved his first public fame beyond his local community as a poet, through the publication at Kilmarnock in July 1786 of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Although by that date he had written more than thirty songs, the Kilmarnock edition is essentially a collection of poems, and includes only three songs towards the end of the book.3 Similarly, the enlarged Edinburgh edition of April 1787 projected the image of Burns as a poet, which was to prove very influential with the public. He had, as it happened, added seven songs, including ‘Green grow the rashes’, but once more the songs were grouped after satires and verse epistles and other ambitious verse forms.4 Criticism of both editions focused on Burns as poet, and a number of enthusiastic well-wishers misguidedly urged him to go on to produce longer poems, if possible in English, as the principal literary language of the United Kingdom.5 Burns did not repeat the public success won by Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, and in fact, although he never abandoned the writing of poetry, he did not of his own initiative seek to publish another collection of poems. Instead, he followed instinct, and set to work as a creative songsmith in order to help his friend James Johnson bring out successive volumes of The Scots Musical Museum, the most complete and authoritative of all collections of Scottish song. This project involved the poet in writing a large number of new songs, as well as in adding to traditional material where words were incomplete or lost. His commitment to the Scots Musical Museum continued until the end of his life. From 1792 Burns added to it work along broadly similar lines for George Thomson’s Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs, another Edinburgh publication,

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2

whose owner sought to impress a more genteel clientele than did the unpretentious Johnson. In all, Burns contributed more than two hundred of the total of six hundred songs in the Museum, and more than a hundred songs to the Select Collection.

A challenge to criticism It is all too easy to take songs for granted, and even easier to make the mistake of dismissing, as undeserving of serious attention, the words of songs such as those of Burns. What Burns achieved required unobtrusive skill—his art conceals art. The effects he sought to create were, in the best sense, simple.6 Thus he did not try to invent complex patterns of meaning, in the manner of seventeenth- or twentieth-century English lyric poets, but instead aimed to complement the expression he found in countless traditional tunes by making up words to match them in spirit and sentiment. This pairing does not mean that his words are secondary to music. Rather, it implies that a Burns song should be thought of in terms of the union of its words and melody. An important criterion by which it can be judged is fitness for performance. When words and melody have been heard together (and not before) we are entitled to ask: do the words suit the tune, and does the tune gain in performance by the words Burns has given it? The finest songs declare themselves as excellent by virtue of the naturalness and apparent inevitability with which the two components suit each other. From whatever period of the poet’s career, such songs stand out; but the songs of Burns include many more successes than either the words alone or the melody alone might suggest to anyone who forgets that in song the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Surprisingly often, words which may appear slight or foolish when read apart from the music to which they belong are seen to be highly appropriate to the mood expressed by a particular tune—and viceversa. What appears on the printed page gives no more than a first indication of allround aesthetic quality.7 The renewal of high quality and of energetic language in the poetry of the British Isles in the later eighteenth century was initiated by the publication of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect at Kilmarnock in 1786. The example of the Kilmarnock Poems helped to convince Wordsworth that poems might be written containing not tired poetic diction but a selection of the ‘vivid language really used by men’. As a song writer, Burns is equally innovatory but the nature of his achievement has seldom been fully understood. Burns is no less at home in song than is Blake in graphic art. It has taken two centuries for Blake’s extraordinary achievements as poet and visual artist to be understood. The position with Burns is complicated by the fact that, at one level, a small number of his songs have always been popular. In the eyes of a certain type of highbrow critic, the fact that some Burns songs succeed in being both simple and popular is actually a disqualification. It is time for a fresh appraisal of his songs, one which shares the sense of recognition of worth expressed in Wordsworth’s tribute ‘At the Grave of Burns’:

I mourned with thousands, but as one More deeply grieved, for He was gone Whose light I hailed when first it shone,

Introduction

3

And showed my youth How Verse may build a princely throne On humble truth.8 A true estimate of Burns will do justice equally to satire and to song. The continuity between his early and later work lies in the quality of each, in a sharply focused sense of verbal economy. Carlyle understood this, describing Burns songs uncompromisingly as ‘by far the best that Britain has yet produced’, to be compared in influence and value only with the songs in Shakespeare’s plays. ‘Read the exquisite songs of Burns’, wrote Tennyson. ‘In shape each of them has the perfection of the berry; in light the radiance of the dewdrop’. W.E.Henley accurately observes in the Centenary Burns, He worked in song exactly as he worked in satire and the rest—on familiar, oldestablished bases; but he did so to a very much greater extent than in satire and the rest, and with a great deal more of help and inspiration from without…. What he found ready to hand was, in brief, his country’s lyric life. Scotland had had singers before him; and they, nameless now and forgotten save as factors in the sum of his achievements, had sung of life and the experiences of life, the tragedy of death and defeat, the farce and the romance of sex, the rapture and the fun of battle and drink, with sincerity always, and often, very often, with rich or rich-rank humour…. And, while it is fair to say that what is best in them is sublimated and glorified by him, it is also fair to say that, but for them, he could never have approved himself the most exquisite artist in folk-song the world has ever seen.9

Song tradition As a poet, Burns was stimulated to emulate the example of his immediate predecessor Robert Fergusson. In song, he owed a much more significant debt to Allan Ramsay, whose anthology of Scottish songs, The Tea-Table Miscellany (4 vols, 1723–37) had been through no fewer than eighteen editions by 1792.10 By appealing to a patriotic interest in Scotland’s older music and song, ‘honest Allan’ gauged successfully the mood of post-Union Scotland, and helped to establish ‘national song’.11 The popularity of his anthology soon extended beyond Scotland. What Ramsay did was to revive and exploit a British taste for Scottish song which had existed since the seventeenth century. Tom D’Urfey’s inclusion of songs making use of fake or synthetic Scots speech in his influential collection, Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy (first published in 1682, final edition 1719–20)—the most popular song book of the day—had prepared the way for The Tea-Table Miscellany. Ramsay supplied the market with ‘Scotch songs’ borrowed (without acknowledgment) from D’Urfey, but also with a number of genuine folk-songs, and, very influentially, with many new lyrics written or commissioned by himself. For the most part these were pleasantly undemanding love songs, or comic songs, usually with a rural setting. It is easy to understand that Scots in particular were

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ready to respond with enthusiasm and nostalgia to pastoral love songs and comic songs which seemed to come from a romantic Scottish background. Many of Ramsay’s songs were written with particular traditional melodies in mind. It was a sign of his success that before long William Thomson, a London-based professional singer of Scots descent, had supplied musical settings for a significant proportion of Ramsay’s collection (without acknowledging his debt to Ramsay) in Orpheus Caledonius: A Collection of Scots Songs. Set to Musick (1725, expanded edition 1733). This was the first Scottish song book to include both words and music.12 As the century went on, there were to be many competing collections of words, music or both together. In language no less than in music, southern norms exerted a powerful influence. Following the precedents set by D’Urfey and by Ramsay, ‘Scotch’ song signified any song with a sprinkling of dialectal forms, whether or not these were authentic. Indeed, to a considerable degree, Scotland shared in a common British song culture. Having surveyed the field, Thomas Crawford writes, Some seventy-four song-books, with or without music, are known to have been published in Scotland before 1786. They contain between them approximately 3000 separate songs, and detailed examination shows that songs written by Englishmen appear to outnumber those of Scottish origin; that a large number of songs composed in Scotland are linguistically indistinguishable from English songs on the printed page; and that the pieces in the song-books are broadly speaking the same sort of songs as those in the chapbooks, slips, broadsides or manuscript collections. The song-books appear to print a larger number of art-songs than do other source-groups.13 Slip or chapbook songs, printed under such titles as Three Excellent New Songs, Seven Excellent Songs and so on, competed for public attention with ‘broadside’ or ‘stall’ ballads, songs with a considerable narrative content, generally fairly long and often padded out, which could be bought cheaply at fairs, markets and elsewhere. Genuine folk songs, originally transmitted only by word of mouth, increasingly tended to find their way into print; while conversely, songs acquired from printed sources sometimes enjoyed such a vogue that their words and melodies were learned by heart.

Burns in Ayrshire During his early years in Ayrshire, Burns became thoroughly familiar with at least one printed song collection. In his autobiographical letter to Dr John Moore of August 1787 he refers to the delight he took in ‘a select Collection of English Songs’. This song book would appear to have been The Lark: Being a Select Collection of the Most Celebrated and Newest Songs, Scots and English (Edinburgh, 1765). Burns describes the effect it had on him in this way: The Collection of Songs was my vade mecum.—I pored over them, driving my cart or walking to labor, song by song, verse by verse;

Introduction

5

carefully noting the true tender or sublime from affectation and fustian.—I am convinced I owe much to this for my critic-craft such as it is.14 He took every opportunity to add to his collection of Scots songs, from whatever source. He played the fiddle, although not so well as to have elicited any comment on his playing (save a sister’s mention) which has survived; and he loved listening to Strathspeys. Given this interest, it is hardly surprising that we often find him later borrowing melodies which were originally written for the fiddle. Even more influential than the fiddle, however, was the unaccompanied human voice. One of the qualities which attracted him to Jean Armour in Mauchline was the fact that she sang sweetly. He had grown up hearing traditional Scots songs sung by his mother and her friends, and it was the most natural thing in the world that the woman he was to marry should be a singer also. Burns grew up in a social setting in which unaffected pleasure in melody and in song went together. Unaccompanied or simply accompanied singing, the playing of reels, jigs and Strathspeys on the fiddle, printed songs picked up at fair and market or from chapbooks and songbooks such as his Select Collection all played a part in the making of the songwriter. But by his own account, it was his natural ardour, the wish to please a beautiful girl at harvest time which actually led him to write his first song. He explained to John Moore that at the age of fifteen he was paired in the harvest with ‘a bewitching creature’, a ‘bonie, sweet, sonsie lass’ who was one year younger than himself. Her name is known—she was Nelly Kilpatrick. The young Burns was strongly attracted, and so in turn was she. How she caught the contagion I can’t say; you medical folks talk much of infection by breathing the same air, the touch, &c. but I never expressly told her that I loved her.—Indeed I did not well know myself, why I liked so much to loiter behind with her, when returning in the evening from our labors; why the tones of her voice made my heartstrings thrill like an Eolian harp; and particularly, why my pulse beat such a furious ratann when I looked and fingered over her hand, to pick out the nettle-stings and thistles.—Among her other love-inspiring qualifications, she sung sweetly; and ‘twas her favorite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme.—I was not so presumptive as to imagine that I could make verses like printed ones, composed by men who had Greek and Latin; but my girl sung a song which was said to be composed by a small country laird’s son, on one of his father’s maids, with whom he was in love; and I saw no reason why I might not rhyme as well as he, for excepting smearing sheep and casting peats, his father living in the moors, he had no more Scholarcraft than I had.—Thus with me began Love and Poesy; which at times have been my only, and till within this last twelvemonth have been my highest enjoyment.—15 It may be argued that this account of how Burns came to write his first song illustrates just too conveniently his belief that he fell in love and began to write poetry at the same point in his life. Interestingly, though, he had offered a similarly circumstantial version of the Nelly Kilpatrick episode and his creative response to it in a verse epistle to Mrs Scott

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of Wauchope written on the day he completed reading proofs of his Edinburgh Poems: 22 March 1787. The poem, entitled ‘Epistle To a Tiviotdale Farmer’s wife’, reveals that even in adolescence he wanted to create something of value for patriotic reasons—even if it were no more than a song (‘a Sang at least’):

Guidwife I mind it weel in early date, When I was beardless, young an’ blate, An’ first could thrash the barn; Or haud a yokin at the pleugh, An’ tho’ forfoughten sair eneugh, Yet unco proud to learn; When first amang the yellow corn A man I reckon’d was, An’ wi’ the lave, ilk merry morn, Could rank my rig an’ lass: Still shearing an’ clearing The tither stooked raw, Wi’ haivers an’ claivers Wearing the day awa. Even then, a wish, I mind it’s power, A wish that to my latest hour Shall strongly heave my breast: That I for poor, auld Scotland’s sake Some usefu’ plan or beuk could make, Or sing a Sang at least: The rough Bur-thrissle, spreading wide Amang the bearded bear, I turn’d my weeding heuk aside, An’ spar’d the symbol dear! No nation, no station My envy e’er could raise; A Scot still but blot still, I knew nae higher praise. But still the elements o’ Sang In formless jumble, right an’ wrang,

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Wild floated thro’ my brain; Till on that Harste I said before, My Partner in the merry core She rous’d the forming Strain: I see her yet, the sonsy queane, That lighted up my jingle, Her pawkie smile, her kittle een, That gart my heart-strings tingle: Sae touch’d, bewitched, I rav’d ay to mysel, But bashing an’ dashing I could na think to tell. God bless the Sex! ilk guid chiel says, Wi’ happy nights an’ merry days, And we to share in common; The gust o’ joy—the balm o’ Woe— The saul o’ Life—the Heaven below— Is rapture-giving Woman! Ye surly sumphs wha hate the Name, Be mindfu’ o’ your Mither! She, honest woman, may think Shame That ye’re connected with her: Ye’re wee men, ye’re nae Men Can? light the lovely Dears; To shame ye, disclaim ye, Ilk honest Birkie swears…16 It is of considerable interest that Burns wrote his first song to a pre-existent tune, a reel which had appealed to his partner in the harvest.17 More often than not, and increasingly as time went on, his song-writing was to be done after this manner, to fit words to known traditional melodies. In no sense was this a question of Burns slavishly depending on the stimulus of music in order to write a song. Like any other prolific poet, he would frequently be inspired to write a lyric simply because he wished to express lyrical thought or feeling. Only afterwards in such instances did he identify a tune or tunes likely to suit the rhythm and rhyme-scheme he had instinctively adopted. There were to be songs, including some of his finest, whose words, for this reason, were drafted early in the creative process, their tunes being chosen later. But Burns lived and breathed traditional Scots airs. It was entirely natural for him to have a particular melody in mind virtually from the beginning, either before or soon after

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starting to write. Good tunes put him in the mood to write. Each one seemed to hold a special beauty and character which he liked to try to capture; and he associated particular individuals like Nelly Kilpatrick with specific airs. As the years went by and he became involved in large-scale song-writing projects, he would sometimes ask one of his friends or correspondents to suggest to him a favourite tune. We learn a good deal about how enthusiastically and intelligently Burns thought about Scots song by his mid-twenties from entries in the commonplace book which he kept from 1783–5. In September 1785 he noted how well the old words and tunes of Scots songs often worked together in practice, even when metrical nicety might appear to be forgotten: There is a certain irregularity in the old Scotch Songs, a redundancy of syllables with respect to that exactness & measure that the English Poetry requires, but which glides in, most melodiously with the respective tunes to which they are set. For instance, the fine old Song of The Mill Mill O, to give it a plain prosaic reading it halts prodigiously out of measure; on the other hand, the Song set to the same tune in Bremner’s collection of Scotch Songs which begins ‘To Fanny fair could I impart &c.’ it is most exact measure, and yet, let them be both sung before a real Critic, one above the biasses of prejudice, but a thorough Judge of Nature,—how flat & spiritless will the last appear, how trite, and tamely methodical, compared with the wild-warbling cadence, the heart-moving melody of the first.—This particularly is the case with all those airs which end with a hypermetrical syllable.18 The allusion here to the setting of a well-known song in Robert Bremner’s Thirty Scots Songs for a voice and harpsichord. The music taken from the most genuine sets extant; the words from Allan Ramsay (1737) shows that even by this early date Burns felt confident enough to detect an error of taste caused by over-genteel standardizing treatment of traditional material. In due course, he would work with George Thomson, whose approach was very often compromised by false gentility, and would retain his own independent viewpoint just as in this instance. The commonplace book entry continues with a passage which conveys Burns’s excitement at the thought that a poet with a good ear might be able to set words to Scotland’s traditional airs ‘independent of rhyme altogether’: There is a degree of wild irregularity in many of the compositions & Fragments which are daily sung to [traditional airs] by my compeers, the common people—a certain happy arrangement of old Scotch syllables, & yet, very frequently, nothing, not even like rhyme, or sameness of jingle at the ends of the lines.—This has made me sometimes imagine that perhaps, it might be possible for a Scotch Poet, with a nice, judicious ear, to set compositions to many of our most favorite airs, particularly that class of them mentioned above, independent of rhyme altogether.

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Given his aptitude for versifying, and his love of song, it would be surprising if he did not already have hopes that one day he himself might be this poet. In his commonplace book, however, he goes on to pay tribute to the anonymous bards of the past whose songs gave such pleasure: There is a noble Sublimity, a heart-melting tenderness in some of these ancient fragments, which show them to be the work of a masterly hand; and it has often given me many a heart ake to reflect that such glorious old Bards—Bards, who, very probably, owed all their talents to native genius, yet have described the exploits of Heroes, the pangs of Disappointment, and the meltings of Love with such fine strokes of Nature, and, O mortifying to a Bard’s vanity, their very names are ‘buried ‘mongst the wreck of things which were’. The thought of unsung bards whose songs give such pleasure tempts him to add a sentimental passage in the style of Harley, the Man of Feeling in Henry Mackenzie’s novel of that name, which Burns at this time prized ‘next to the Bible’. O ye illustrious Names unknown! who could feel so strongly and describe so well! the last, the meanest of the Muses train—one who, though far inferiour to your flights, yet eyes your path, and with trembling wing would sometimes soar after you—a poor, rustic Bard unknown, pays this sympathetic pang to your memory! Some of you tell us, with all the charms of Verse, that you have been unfortunate in the world— unfortunate in love; he, too, has felt all the unfitness of a Poetic heart for the struggle of a busy, bad world; he has felt the loss of his little fortune, the loss of friends, and worse than all, the loss of the woman he adored! Like you, all his consolation was his Muse—She taught him in rustic measures to complain—Happy, could he have done it with your strength of imagination, and flow of Verse! May the turf rest lightly on your bones! And may you now enjoy that solace and rest which this world rarely gives to the heart tuned to all the feelings of POESY AND LOVE!19 Such varied entries in his commonplace book show that Burns’s interest in song included both detailed considerations of verse technique on the one hand and on the other a markedly ‘sentimental’ response towards what had been achieved in the past. The idiom of The Man of Feeling has long since ceased to appeal as it did in the later eighteenth century; but it is of considerable interest that Burns associates Scottish song writers of days gone by with the language of feeling, for in an important sense he was to continue to approach song-writing in terms of sentiment for the rest of his life.20 In his varied songwriting activity, he had the advantage of being rooted in a very distinctive musical tradition. What he succeeded in doing with this basis was to make of simple lyric a form which was beautifully suited for the pur-pose of expressing sympathetic emotions, including love. As far as Burns was concerned, many traditional songs expressed feeling

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very directly, just as ‘exquisite’ Strathspey tunes did. His response to the affective quality of traditional airs is seen in the commonplace book comment By the way, these old Scottish airs are so nobly sentimental that when one would compose to them; to south the tune, as our Scotch phrase is, over & over, is the readiest way to catch the inspiration and raise the Bard into that glorious enthusiasm so strongly characteristic of our old Scotch Poetry.21 Indeed, a large part of what appealed to him about song-writing had to do with distilling in brief compass the essence of sympathetic feelings. When he invokes Mackenzie’s style in prose, the resulting confusion between natural candour and literary artifice is sometimes unhappy. Nor does he always succeed in his songs in blending true feeling and appropriate diction—a number of songs are spoiled by mere attitudinizing. Against these sentimental embarrassments, however, we have to set the very real advantages Burns derived from respecting, and in an artistic sense, believing in the language of sentiment. His songs were to become the most significant aesthetic product of the age of sentiment throughout Great Britain. Arguably the most impressive of all Burns’s experiments as a song writer took place in the Ayrshire period. On a raw autumn day in 1785 a group of beggars met in PoosieNansie’s inn in Mauchline, and proceeded to ‘drink their orra duddies’, or spend on ale and spirits what cash they could get for spare clothes they had picked up on their travels. Ayrshire at the time had many such vagrants, who consume their spoils, in feasting, drinking, swearing, and carousing at the expense of the simple…. It is no way uncommon to see from ten to twenty…with half a dozen tea-pots, three or four dram bottles, and several gill or half-mutchkin stoups, in rapid circulation.22 As the night went on, the scene in the tavern became drunkenly boisterous. A number of declarations of love and related incidents took place in the company, there was much swapping of reminiscences, and songs were sung, ranging from the maudlin to the angrily defiant. Two outsiders who observed the beggars during their spree were Burns, at that time twenty-six years old and farmer of nearby Mossgiel, and his friend John Richmond, a lawyer’s clerk. Not long afterwards, Burns wrote a cantata about the beggars. He was influenced by popular beggar-songs such as ‘The Happy Beggars’ in Ramsay’s TeaTable Miscellany, and by the ballad-opera form, made famous by John Gay in The Beggar’s Opera (1728). Burns’s cantata, Love and Liberty, has an ambitious architectonic scale which makes it unique in his song-writing career: never again would he set out to write a number of thematically related songs to match invented characters in a particular dramatic situation. After a vivid opening sketch of the external wintry scene and the contrasting alcoholic warmth in Poosie-Nansie’s, Love and Liberty consists of a set of songs to traditional tunes, which are named, together with linking recitative. Rather than projecting a literal transcript from experience, it is an original imaginative work inspired by the poet’s

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evening among the down-and-outs, one which has overall unity and an inner dynamic which at certain moments seems to anticipate Brecht.23 Burns creates narrative interest through the interrelated fortunes and lifestories of the singers. For example, we hear first from a soldier who has taken part in the capture of Quebec in 1757 and a number of other celebrated actions, only to be thrown on the streets when the loss of an arm and a leg in the defence of Gibraltar make him unable to serve the army further. Forced to beg in order to survive, he remains undefeated in spirit, and ends his song defiantly,

What tho’ with hoary locks I must stand the winter shocks, Beneath the woods and rocks oftentimes for a home! When the t’other bag I sell, and the t’other bottle tell, I could meet a troop of hell at the sound of a drum. The song of his doxy, or ‘martial chuck’, follows. She proceeds in down-to-earth fashion, beginning with the declaration

I once was a maid tho’ I cannot tell when and recalls the circumstances in which she met her ‘old boy’.

The peace it reduc’d me to beg in despair, Till I met my old boy in a Cunningham fair; His rags regimental they flutter’d so gaudy, My heart it rejoic’d at a sodger laddie. Thereafter, thirst and sexual competition among the beggars—who include a ‘pigmy scraper wi’ his fiddle’, a ‘sturdy caird’ and a ‘wight of Homer’s craft’—produce a series of moments of intense comic action. By means of their candid individual revelations of what it can be like to survive below the bread line, and their unrestrained pursuit of pleasure in the tavern, Burns creates a sympathetic mood. His beggars pose a challenge to ‘normal’ society. The cantata works cumulatively and is crowned by the final two songs, uttered by an itinerant ‘bard of no regard’, or wandering poet, which gather up and communicate the anarchic energy present in the pub. In the first of these songs, expressing a hedonistic commitment to drink and sex, Burns cocks a snook at polite ideas of poetry:

I never drank the Muses’ stank, Castalia’s burn, an’ a’ that; But there it streams, an’ richly reams,

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My Helicon I ca’ that. Great love I bear to all the fair, Their humble slave an’ a’ that; But lordly will, I hold it still A mortal sin to thraw that. He clearly found the company of the beggars to be imbued with something profoundly subversive which he experienced as liberating. Perhaps because it sums up this message—also conveyed by his title for the entire work, Love and Liberty—the last chorus was all that Burns claimed to remember from the cantata when George Thomson inquired about it in 1793, eight years after its composition:

A fig for those by law protected! Liberty’s a glorious feast! Courts for cowards were erected, Churches built to please the Priest!24 It was only by chance that this Ayrshire masterpiece survived in manuscript, to be published after the poet’s death.

Edinburgh: a new beginning Burns travelled to Edinburgh in November 1786 with the aim of publishing a second edition of his Poems. The following summer, when he received part of the money which the new edition earned for him, he made a number of tours, to the Borders and, more than once, to the Highlands. Otherwise, the capital remained his base until the spring of 1787, when he returned to Ayrshire, and he was to spend the winter of 1787–8 in Edinburgh also. He gained new musical experience even before he left Ayrshire. It is recorded, for instance, that he first heard a spinet played in the manse of the Rev. George Lawrie, the minister of Loudoun, shortly before he set off for the capital. For someone with as good an ear as Burns, the experience was not likely to be forgotten. In Edinburgh, there were varied forms of public and private entertainment, including both polite musical evenings at which Scots songs were sung and all-male tavern singsongs. The capital was enjoying a period of intense musical and social activity. Gifted professional singers gave wellattended recitals, and there were regular concerts. Having been taken up by influential citizens with Ayrshire connections such as the Earl of Glencairn and Professor Dugald Stewart, Burns was invited out a great deal. Mrs Alison Cockburn, for sixty years one of the acknowledged ‘queens’ of Edinburgh society, wrote to a friend on 30 December,

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The town is at present agog with the ploughman poet, who receives adulation with native dignity, and is the very figure of his profession, strong and coarse, but he has a most enthusiastic heart of LOVE. He has seen Duchess Gordon and all the gay world…. The man will be spoiled, if he can spoil; but he keeps his simple manners, and is quite sober. No doubt he will be at the Hunters’ Ball tomorrow, which has made all women and milliners mad.25 It says something about the popularity of Scots song in different social classes that Alison Cockburn, the wife of a respectable Edinburgh advocate, had written at least one celebrated song herself. ‘The Flowers of the Forest’, Burns wrote to George Thomson in July 1793, is charming as a poem; & should be & must be, set to the notes; but though out of your rule, the three Stanzas beginning, ‘I hae seen the smiling o’ Fortune beguiling’, are worthy of a place, were it but to immortalise the Author of them, who is an old lady of my acquaintance and at this moment living in Edinburgh. She is a Mrs Cockburn; I forget of what place; but from Roxburghshire.26

Scotia’s Bard and The Scots Musical Museum Song could be the work of ploughman, advocate’s wife or duke. The Duke of Gordon, whose spirited Duchess helped to open doors for Burns in the capital, tried his hand at song-writing. In a letter to James Hoy, the librarian of Gordon Castle, which he visited in September 1787, Burns praised a song by the Duke which Hoy had sent him, and went on to make telling comment on the difficult art of song-writing: The Duke’s song, independent totally of his dukeship, charms me. There is I know not what of wild happiness of thought and expression peculiarly beautiful in the old Scottish song style, of which his Grace, old, venerable Skinner, the Author of Tullochgorum &c; and the late Ross at Lochlee of true Scottish poetic memory, are the only modern instances that I recollect, since Ramsay with his contemporaries, and poor Bob Ferguson, went to the World of deathless existence and truly immortal song.—The Mob of mankind, that ‘many-headed beast,’ would laugh at so serious speech about ‘an old Song;’ but, as Job says, ‘O that mine adversary had written a book!’ Those who think that composing a Scotch song is a trifling business—let them try.27 When he wrote this letter, Burns was very excited about a major Scots song project in which he had recently become involved. A few months earlier, he had attended in a tavern in Anchor Close a meeting of the Crochallan Fencibles, one of Edinburgh’s many drinking clubs, and while in their sociable company had met someone whose enthusiasm for old Scottish songs equalled his own. James Johnson was an unassuming Borderer, a

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music publisher in a small way in Edinburgh, with a passion for collecting and publishing old songs. When he suggested that the poet might wish to join him in bringing out the Scots Musical Museum, a collection of Scots songs with the best airs and words which could be supplied, Burns required no second invitation. Volume 1 of the Museum was already at an advanced stage when Burns met Johnson. Even so, there was time for Burns to contribute two songs. Thereafter, he became very enthusiastic about prospects for future volumes, and actively solicited contributions for the next set of one hundred songs, which was due to appear in the spring of 1788. James Hoy’s letter enclosing a song by the Duke of Gordon actually answered a request made to him by Burns in a letter of 20 October 1787: An Engraver, James Johnson, in Edinr has, not from mercenary views but from an honest Scotch enthusiasm, set about collecting all our native Songs and setting them to music; particularly those that have never been set before.—Clarke, the well known Musician, presides over the musical arrangement; and Drs Beattie & Blacklock, Mr Tytler, Woodhouslee, and your humble servt to the utmost of his small power, assist in collecting the old poetry, or sometimes for a fine air to make a stanza, when it has no words.28 Responsibility for harmonizing the airs for the Museum lay with Stephen Clarke (1744– 97), organist in the Episcopal Chapel of Edinburgh in the Cowgate, whom Burns met in 1787 and for whose knowledge of music he had considerable respect. Clarke’s harmonizations have been criticized by recent musicologists as rudimentary.29 He was sometimes careless, but he seems to have respected the ideal of sim-plicity shared by Burns and Johnson. His treatment of Scots melodies conforms to the criterion of taste laid down by William Tytler: The proper accompaniment of a Scots song is a plain, thin, dropping bass, on the harpsichord or guitar…. The full chords of a thorough-bass should be used sparingly, and with judgment, not to over-power but to support and raise the voice at proper pauses.30 As it turned out, Burns had the principal editorial role in compiling successive volumes of the Museum. He found a new sense of purpose as a writer in carrying out his own and Johnson’s ambitious plan for the Museum to become the most comprehensive of all Scotland’s song collections. Well-meaning acquaintances in Edinburgh frequently urged him to remember that he was no longer an Ayrshire rustic, but a poet capable of representing the entire Scottish people, ‘Scotia’s Bard’. Burns felt uneasy about writing poetry on such terms and instinctively rejected attempts to make him conform to learned expectations. He had no objection, however, to assuming a national role as a collector and writer of Scottish song. The travels he had undertaken in the lowlands and the north had introduced him to many new songs. He had felt restless in Edinburgh; and while his luck held, was determined not let the dust settle under his feet. So it had come about that between the early summer and late autumn of 1787 he was an eager tourist in his own land, visiting

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with different travelling companions first the Borders and then, on successive trips, large tracts of the Highlands and central Scotland. His principal Highland tour was made in company with Willie Nicol, a crosspatch of an Edinburgh dominie whose lack of consideration towards hosts intent on giving Burns a welcome embarrassed the poet more than once, notably at Gordon Castle. Taking Nicol along, Burns noted, was like ‘travelling with a loaded blunderbuss at full cock’. Yet the journey brought its own moments of shared pleasure for the pair, including richly varied scenery and sessions of witty talk over a dram. Artistically, Burns drew inspiration from the beauty of unfamiliar forests, lochs and rivers, from battlefields such as Bannockburn and Culloden, with their challenging historical associations and from meetings en route with kindred spirits. Near Dunkeld, there was a never-to-be-forgotten opportunity to enjoy the brilliant fiddling of Neil Gow, ‘a short, stout-built, honest highland figure’.31 It is somehow appropriate that from the time of his Highland journey onwards, Burns increasingly became the nation’s outstanding writer and collector of songs. His travels had given him the right to state:

By Oughtertyre grows the aik, On Yarrow banks the birken shaw… The Highland hills I’ve wander’d wide And o’er the Lawlands I have been.32 In the course of his travels, he had come across people interested in song tradition in different parts of Scotland, had visited places associated with historic events and ballads both north and south of the highland line, and had listened attentively to many highland and lowland tunes. He now had unrivalled authority as a song writer and collector, conferred by his firsthand familiarity with new sources of song, as well as by natural aptitude.

George Thomson and the Select Collection Burns’s happy co-operation with James Johnson lasted without a break from 1787 until the poet’s death nine years later. It is possible to trace different phases in Burns’s songwriting during these years, including a particularly prolific period shortly after he moved to Ellisland Farm in 1788, when it is clear that both as artist and farmer he enjoyed the stimulus of a fresh start. A relatively inactive spell occurred some two years later when poor farming returns made him decide to give up farming and work full-time as an exciseman. The exciseman’s role in society—a combination in modern terms of VAT inspector and customs officer—had never been popular. Burns needed the salary to feed his growing family, but at times he found excise work exhausting, for he was expected to ride some two hundred miles each week in carrying out his duties.33 When he moved from Ellisland to Dumfries, in November 1791, the demands of his job were still heavy. It was against this background that Burns quietly continued to practise his hobby of song making. In September 1792, he received an unexpected invitation to contribute to a

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second song collection. This came from George Thomson, an Edinburgh citizen with a passion for Scottish song. Born in 1757 the son of a schoolmaster in Limekilns, Fife, Thomson earned his living as senior clerk to the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Art and Manufacture in Scotland. A skilled violinist, he regularly attended the St Cecilia Concerts held in Niddry’s Wynd, Edinburgh, and it was as a result of doing so that he formed the idea of collecting Scottish melodies, and of obtaining accompaniments for them from leading composers of the day. Many years after Burns’s death, he wrote an account for Robert Chambers of how the idea came to him. At the St. Cecilia concerts I heard Scottish songs sung in a style of excellence far surpassing any idea which I had previously had of their beauty, and that, too, from Italians, Signor Tenducci the one, and Signora Domenica Corri the other. Tenducci’s ‘I’ll never leave thee’ and ‘Braes of Bellenden’, and the Signora’s ‘Ewebughts, Marion,’ and ‘Waly, Waly,’ so delighted every hearer that in the most crowded room not a whisper was to be heard, so entirely did they rivet the attention of the audience. Tenducci’s singing was full of passion, feeling, and taste, his articulation of the words was no less perfect than his expression of the music. It was in consequence of my hearing him and Signora Corri sing a number of our songs so charmingly that I conceived the idea of collecting all our best melodies and songs, and of obtaining accompaniments to them worthy of their merit.34 Thomson’s principal ambitions were musical. Whatever their previous lack of familiarity with Scottish music, he wanted the very best European composers. In due course, he would recruit Haydn and Beethoven to help his cause. He found that Beethoven charged a high price for supplying ritornelli or instrumental leads for Scottish songs.35 To realize his dream of publishing a Select Collection, Thomson also urgently needed someone to devote skilled attention to the words of songs. It was with this in view that he asked one of Burns’s friends for a letter of introduction, and wrote to the poet in September 1792 explaining his requirements and ideals: For some years past, I have, with a friend or two, employed many leisure hours in collating and collecting the most favourite of our national melodies, for publication. We have engaged Pleyel, the most agreeable composer living, to put accompaniments to these, and also to compose an instrumental prelude and conclusion to each air, the better to fit them for concerts both public and private. To render this work perfect, we are desirous to have the poetry improved wherever it seems unworthy of the music; and that it is so, in many instances, is allowed by every one conversant with our musical collections. The editors of these seem in general to have depended on the music proving an excuse for the verses; and hence some charming melodies are united to mere nonsense and doggerel, while others are accommodated with rhymes so loose and indelicate as cannot be sung in decent company. To remove this reproach

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would be an easy task to the author of ‘The Cotter’s Saturday Night’; and, for the honour of Caledonia, I would fain hope he may be induced to take up the pen.36 Burns may have smiled at the anxious interest Thomson expressed in purifying the words of indecent songs. While he himself had always distinguished between songs for mixed and for all-male company, his own approach to song was untainted by false gentility of this kind. In time, he would find that Thomson’s taste was indeed conventional. Burns’s immediate response, though, was very positive. He wrote back cheerfully on 16 September accepting the invitation to take part in the project, while making it clear that he would not work for money: As the request you make to me will positively add to my enjoyments in complying with it, I shall enter into your undertaking with all the small portion of abilities I have, strained to their utmost exertion by the impulse of Enthusiasm.—Only, don’t hurry me: ‘Deil tak the hindmost’ is by no means the Crie de guerre of my Muse. Will you, as I am inferiour to none of you in enthusiastic attachment to the Poetry & Music of old Caledonia, &, since you request it, have chearfully promised my mite of assistance, will you let me have a list of your airs with the first line of the verses you intend for them, that I may have an opportunity of suggesting any alteration that may occur to me—you know ‘tis in the way of my trade— still leaving you, Gentlemen, the undoubted right of Publishers, to approve, or reject, at your pleasure in your own Publication?—I say, the first line of the verses, because if they are verses that have appeared in any of our collections of songs, I know them & can have recourse to them. Apropos, if you are for English verses, there is, on my part, an end of the matter.—Whether in the simplicity of the Ballad, or the pathos of the Song, I can only hope to please myself in being allowed at least a sprinkling of our native tongue…. As to any remuneration, you may think my Songs either above, or below price; for they shall absolutely be the one or the other.—In the honest enthusiasm with which I embark in your undertaking, to talk of money, wages, fee, hire, &c. would be downright Sodomy of Soul! A proof of each of the Songs that I compose or amend, I shall receive as a favor.—In the rustic phrase of the Season, ‘Gude speed the wark!’37 There are several points of interest about this reply. First, Burns was so thoroughly familiar with Scottish song, and had built up such a complete private collection of song books (containing several hundred songs), that he needed only the first line of any song to be able to trace it. Second, he freely allowed Thomson the right to reject his work. In time, he was to have reason to rue his generosity in this connection, for Thomson was an obsessively determined man of strictly limited imagination, who would think nothing of asking for changes when he did not like Burns’s work.38 Again, Burns declared himself to be at ease only when free to use Scots diction, even if this should be no more than a ‘sprinkling’. (As time went on, Thomson in fact was to try to persuade him to supply

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songs in English. The two men instinctively approached the language issue in completely different ways. With his eye on drawing-room performance, and the southern market, Thomson sought to anglicize Scots song, whereas Burns believed Scots diction was an essential characteristic.) Finally, Burns made it clear that he would work for Thomson from a disinterested love of song, and not for any financial reward. This was genuinely a matter of principle with him. At one stage, Thomson would insist on his accepting £5 for much work willingly done. Sadly, too, at the end of his life, Burns was so desperately worried about debts facing his family that he was forced to write to Thomson to ask for payment of another £5.39 (To his credit, Thomson immediately complied.) Otherwise, Burns steadfastly refused to accept payment for his work. Some idea of what his work might have been worth elsewhere can be gained if his unpaid song-writing services over many years for Johnson and Thomson are contrasted with the sums paid to Tom Moore for his work on Irish Melodies for Sir John Stevenson, which began in 1807. Moore was paid at the rate of a hundred guineas a song. The publication of Irish Melodies went on until 1834, when he had drawn from it £12,810, the equivalent of £500 a year. In June 1793, Thomson published the first part of his Select Collection of Scotish Airs, containing among its twenty-five songs six contributed by Burns. After this, Thomson widened the scope of the work to include ‘every Scottish air and song worth singing’. Burns remained true to his word, and by the time of his death had supplied Thomson with a total of more than a hundred songs. A number of these, including ‘The Lea-Rig’, ‘Duncan Gray’, and ‘Scots wha hae’, were among his finest, but in general, Thomson’s fussy attitude and editorial interventions militated against excellence, so that Burns frequently found himself having to defend his point of view. The letters he was provoked into writing to Thomson contain a unique and valuable running commentary on his songwriting practice. Thomson’s was a privileged position, although he did not always realize it. On 30 August 1793, for instance, Burns sent him the song now known as ‘Scots wha hae’. When Burns visited the field of Bannockburn in 1787, he was deeply moved, writing to Robert Muir from Stirling on 26 August, I knelt at the tomb of Sir John the Graham, the gallant friend of the immortal Wallace; and two hours ago I said a fervent prayer for Old Caledonia over the hole in a blue whinstone, where Robert de Bruce fixed his royal standard on the banks of the Bannockburn.40 Years later, he wrote about the tune Hey tutti, taiti, I have met the tradition universally over Scotland, and particularly about Stirling, in the neighbourhood of the scene, that this air was Robert Bruce’s march at the battle of Bannockburn.41 When the idea came to him of celebrating Bruce and his great victory, he recalled both what he had learned about this tune and his feelings at the scene of the battle. In his letter of 30 August 1793, he wrote to Thomson,

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I am delighted with many little melodies, which the learned musician despises as silly & insipid.—I do not know whether the old Air, ‘Hey tutti taitie,’ may rank among this number; but well I know that, with Fraser’s Hautboy, it has often filled my eyes with tears. There is a tradition, which I have met with in many places of Scotland, that it was Robert Bruce’s March at the battle of Bannock-burn.—This thought, in my yesternight’s evening walk, warmed me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of Liberty & Independance, which I threw into a kind of Scots Ode, fitted to the air that one might suppose to be the gallant ROYAL SCOT’s address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning [here he gives the complete words of the ode]. So may God ever defend the cause of TRUTH and LIBERTY, as he did that day!—Amen! P.S. I shewed the air to Urbani, who was highly pleased with it, & begged me to make soft verses for it; but I had no idea of giving myself any trouble on the subject, till the accidental recollection of that glorious struggle for Freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient, roused my rhyming Mania.42 The ‘other struggles…not quite so ancient’ were those of revolutionary France: the Republic was just a year old, and Burns had democratic sympathies.43 Thomson liked the ode but not the tune, and suggested instead Lewie Gordon, an air with ‘more of the grand than the plaintive’. Burns went along with this suggestion, but would not change line 3, ‘Welcome to your gory bed’ to Thomson’s proposed more genteel reading ‘Now prepare for honour’s bed’.44 When Currie’s edition of Burns’s Works came out in 1800, the public demanded that ‘Scots wha hae’ be set to the tune Burns had originally intended. In due course, Thomson acknowledged in print that ‘Hey, tutti, taitie gave more energy to the words than Lewie Gordon’.45 Cedric Thorpe Davie has helpfully grouped Burns’s songs into various categories, according to the quality of words, of melody and of the match between the two. The highest class is made up of songs possessing ‘good words well matched by good music’. He writes: Burns had no part in the direction, editing or production of A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs, and while it is true that many of his offerings to Thomson were spontaneously given, many more were written at Thomson’s specific request, and therefore were more likely to be selfconsciously worked out. Moreover, it cannot have been long before Burns became aware that he was not to have the last word even as to the form and detail of his own work, and in Burns’s letters to Thomson we find several indications of the irritation and frustration which some of Thomson’s impertinent proposals for change of wording or of air produced. That Thomson so often proceeded in his own way despite the poet’s protests can only have made matters worse, and the whole frame of mind within which Burns did his work for Thomson must have progressively deteriorated, even though the poet may not have been conscious of the fact.

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Of 213 songs by Burns in the Scots Musical Museum, 52 come under my heading of ‘good words well matched by good music’. In Thomson, the proportion is 19 out of a total of 114. Moreover, of those in Thomson, only 8 are unique to his edition, the remaining 11 appearing also in the Scots Musical Museum, usually in more definitive forms. Thomson, in fact, despite his expressed distaste for the alleged vulgarity of the Museum, did not object to duplicating some of the songs that had already appeared there.46 On about 18 May 1796, Burns made clear to Thomson, to whom he had written a few days earlier ‘I had rather be the author of five well-written songs than of ten otherwise’, that he intended to publish the best of his songs for the Museum and the Select Collection in a separate edition under his own name.47 Unfortunately, he did not live to carry out this plan.

Bawdy songs Burns would not have considered bringing before the general public his bawdy songs, which, in common with his own and several subsequent generations, he thought of as being suited to male rather than to mixed company. They belonged, in his eyes, to the taverns and clubs where men foregathered, drank, swopped jokes and sometimes sang. He nevertheless had exceptional flair for writing, collecting and revising comic songs of varying degrees of obscenity. At times, it was doubtless with a measure of relief that he turned in this direction rather than towards yet more genteel song making for Thomson. Since the publication in 1959 of The Merry Muses of Caledonia, his privately compiled bawdy song book, the unrespectable side of his lyric genius has received more open attention than previously.48 It was after all part of Burns’s nature from at least the Mauchline years to rejoice unashamedly in sexual conquest and sexual humour. He proudly defied convention, for example by making several copies of his poem ‘The Libel Summons’, which, by means of a parody of legal procedure, reports with typical zest his own and his friends’ sexual misdemeanours in Mauchline. (There are three manuscripts in the British Library alone.)

In Truth and Honor’s name, AMEN.— Know all men by these Presents plain.— The fourth o’ June, at Mauchline given, The year ‘tween eighty five an’ seven, We, Fornicators by profession, As, per extractum from each Session, In way and manner here narrated, Pro bono Amor congregated; And by our brethren constituted,

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A COURT of EQUITY deputed.— With special authoris’d direction To take beneath our strict protection, The stays-out-bursting, quondam maiden, With GROWING LIFE and anguish laden; Who by the rascal is deny’d, That led her thoughtless steps aside.— He who disowns the ruin’d Fair-one, And for her wants and woes does care none; The wretch that can refuse subsistence To those whom he has given existence; He who when at a lass’s by-job, Defrauds her wi’ a fr—g or dry-b—b; The coof that stands on clishmaclavers When women haflins offer favors:— All who in any way or manner Distain the Fornicator’s honor, We take cognisance thereanent The proper Judges competent.— First, Poet B—s, he take the chair; Allow’d by a’, his title’s fair; And pass’d nem. con. without dissension, He has a DUPLICATE pretension… WHEREAS, Our FISCAL, by petition, Informs us there is strong suspicion, YOU, Coachman DOW, and Clockie BROWN, Baith residenters in this town, In other words, you, JOCK and SANDIE Hae been at wark at HOUGHMAGANDIE; And now when it is come to light, The matter ye deny outright.— FIRST, YOU, JOHN BROWN, there’s witness borne, And affidavit made and sworn, That ye hae bred a hurly-burly ‘Bout JEANY MITCHEL’S tirlie-whirlie, And bloosterd at her regulator, Till a’ her wheels gang clitter-clatter…49

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The imagery of clocks and time-keeping shows the inventiveness which made Burns popular as one of the ‘ramstam boys’. Similar brio and energy inform such early songs as ‘My girl she’s airy, she’s buxom and gay’, entered in his commonplace book at the time of his amour with Betty Paton in September 1784.50 At this stage, Burns had recourse to bawdy song primarily for personal reasons, because he wanted to shock and challenge the values of Mauchline society and the kirk elders who took on themselves to police the extramarital sexual activities of its young men and women. ‘The Fornicator’, ‘a new Song’ to the tune of Clout the Cauldron, is frank about Betty Paton’s sexual charms, and cheerfully unrepentant. Here, as in ‘The Libel Summons’, Burns’s candour about his own (and his cronies’) sexual licence is a way of expressing rebellion against what he sees as hypocritical social attitudes. The farmer-poet also makes it plain in an unbawdy central stanza that he is ready to give practical help to the girl who has borne his child:

But for her sake this vow I make, And solemnly I swear it, That while I own a single crown She’s welcome for to share it; And my roguish boy his Mother’s joy And the darling of his Pater, For him I boast my pains and cost, Although a Fornicator.51 As time went on, Burns’s lyrical muse would return on occasion to the robust personal candour about sex which distinguishes ‘The Fornicator’. A deliberately shocking example is the song he wrote, probably in 1790, after making love to Anne Park, niece of the landlady at the Globe Inn in Dumfries.

Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine, A place where body saw na; Yestreen lay on this breast o’ mine The gowden locks of Anna. The hungry Jew in wilderness 5 Rejoicing o’er his manna Was naething to my hiney bliss Upon the lips of Anna. Ye Monarchs take the East and West, Frae Indus to Savannah! 10 Gie me within my straining grasp The melting form of Anna.

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There I’ll despise Imperial charms, An Empress or Sultana, While dying raptures in her arms 15 I give and take with Anna!!!52 What Burns is challenging here is the coyness of genteel drawing-room lyric, and in a sense a whole tradition of sentimental writing he had grown up with. This song celebrates love neither in terms of the refinements of sentiment nor of a lasting relationship, but instead as physical desire assuaged in an erotic encounter with a barmaid. He wrote to George Thomson in April 1793, ‘Shepherds, I have lost my love,’ is, to me, a Heavenly air.—What would you think of a set of Scots verses to it?—I have made one, a good while ago, which I think, is the best love-song I ever composed in my life; but in its original state, is not quite a lady’s song’.53 Thomson, however, did not publish the song. In certain letters (which were destroyed in the early nineteenth century) Burns alternated between the expression of sentiment in prose and ‘obscene songs’ to a degree which astonished Byron.54 Of his songs, perhaps only an extempore parody ‘Ode to Spring’ fully reveals his related gift for subverting the idiom of politeness in lyric by means of physically frank references which, in the literal sense, breach decorum. Burns explained to Thomson in January 1795 how it came to be written: Some years ago, when I was young, and by no means the saint I am now, I was looking over, in company with a belle lettre friend, a Magazine Ode to Spring, when my friend fell foul of the recurrence of the same thoughts, and offered me a bet that it was impossible to produce an Ode to Spring on an original plan.—I accepted it, and pledged myself to bring in the verdant fields,—the budding flowers,—the chrystal streams,—the melody of the groves,—and a love-story into the bargain, and yet be original. Here follows the piece, and wrote for music too!55

When maukin bucks, at early f—s, In dewy glens are seen, Sir; And birds, on boughs, take off their m—s, Amang the leaves sae green, Sir; Latona’s sun looks liquorish on Dame Nature’s grand impètus, Till his p—go rise, then westward flies To r—ger Madame Thetis.56 The song in fact is a send-up of the language of one kind of insipid eighteenth-century lyric.

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Burns made a collection of bawdy songs, which after his death was to form the basis of The Merry Muses of Caledonia. He refers to it more than once, and a 1792 letter to his friend John McMurdo, Chamberlain to the Duke of Queensberry at Drumlanrig, is specific: I think I once mentioned something to you of a Collection of Scots Songs I have for some years been making: I send you a perusal of what I have gathered.—I could not conveniently spare them above five or six days, & five or six glances of them will probably more than suffice you.—When you are tired of them, please leave them with Mr Clint of the King’s Arms.—There is not another copy of the Collection in the world, & I should be sorry that any unfortunate negligence should deprive me of what has cost me a good deal of pains. Professor G.Ross Roy, the most recent editor of Burns’s Letters, points out in a note that James Currie included as the third sentence in this passage the words ‘A very few of them are my own’, which are not in fact in Burns’s manuscript. As a result of his interpolation, every editor of Burns from 1800 to 1951 was likely to mislead the public by minimizing Burns’s contribution to the Merry Muses.57 That contribution included the collecting, revising and writing of songs. Burns engaged in all these activities instinctively. His declaration to George Thomson in April 1793 that ‘What with my early attachment to ballads, Johnson’s Museum, your book: &c. Ballad-making is now as compleatly my hobby-horse, as ever Fortification was Uncle Toby’s’ is sufficiently broad in scope to imply a wry reference to bawdy ballads along with the rest.58 It was simply not in Burns’s nature to ignore a source of so much comedy and truth to life. He understood, for example, that ordinary human beings enjoy sex— whatever the realities of political upheaval, or resistance to change, imposed by those in power. Such is the meaning of what is at first sight a totally unexpected response to the decade of revolution in a song he described a little defensively to Graham of Fintry, a superior in the Excise, as ‘a tippling Ballad’:

When Princes and Prelates and het-headed zealots All Europe hae set in a lowe, The poor man lies down, nor envies a crown, And comforts himself with a mowe.— CHORUS And why shouldna poor folk mowe, mowe, mowe, And why shouldna poor folk mowe: The great folk hae siller, and houses and lands, Poor bodies hae nothing but mowe…59

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Burns might be forced to compromise in his radical political utterances, but in a time of widespread fear and apprehension he makes use of bawdy humour in this instance to imply a contemptuous rejoinder to ideologues, which is not far removed from Shakespeare’s ‘a plague on both your houses’. In Kinsley’s words, ‘Burns celebrates the levelling power—and harmlessness—of copulation’.60 According to this subversive song, sex, and the bawdy acceptance of sex, offer an alternative way of life to being reduced to nothing between mere destructive armies of the state.

Reviser, collector, song writer The Scots Musical Museum demonstrates conclusively that in addition to contributing his services as a tireless reviser of old words, and a collector of both traditional and new songs, Burns continued in his later years to write original songs. Song now mattered to him at least as much as the writing of poems, but for different reasons. Scots song, in his view, belonged to the people of Scotland—it was something to be shared and treasured. Tunes which he thought too good to lose were his starting-point. What mattered was that they should be given words to complete the musical expression. He took pride in his work, but probably attached less importance to the distinction between his own original verses and those of his predecessors in song than most people do today, and certainly had no illusions about achieving perfection in every instance. A brief selection of songs contributed to the Scots Musical Museum will illustrate some of the different ways in which Burns was able to contribute to the work. Perhaps the most characteristic is a song which combines fragmentary or incomplete old words with Burns’s original expansion and development of a theme only hinted at in the version he inherited. A good example is ‘My heart was ance as blythe and free’, a wry song in which a girl tells the story of her seduction by a weaver. It makes use of two different melodies, in chorus and verses. A fundamental aspect of Burns’s art is that his words keep to the mood as well as the contour of each tune. The song begins:

My heart was ance as blythe and free As simmer days were lang; But a bonie, westlin weaver lad Has gart me change my sang. CHORUS To the weaver’s gin ye go, fair maids, To the weaver’s gin ye go, I rede you right, gang ne’er at night, To the weaver’s gin ye go.61

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Burns wrote in his friend Robert Riddell’s interleaved copy of the Scots Musical Museum,

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The chorus of this song is old, the rest of it is mine. Here, once for all, let me apologise for many silly compositions of mine in this work. Many beautiful airs wanted words; in the hurry of other avocations, if I could string a parcel of rhymes together anything near tolerable, I was fain to let them pass. He must be an excellent poet indeed, whose every performance is excellent. R.B.62 One needs only to listen to a good singer perform ‘My heart was ance as blythe and free’ to understand that Burns was being modest in the extreme about what he had accomplished in this instance. The chorus alone was to hand. Not only did he supply the entire narrative of the girl’s journey with her homespun yarn to have it woven into cloth; he matched the girl’s confession of how she was attracted by the weaver to the imagery of weaving itself; and subtly exploited the contrasting melody line of verse and chorus to convey both her delight and her regret. This necessitated an act of creation including interpretation of the music. James Dick comments accurately, ‘the chorus starts in a merry strain, but gets back to the half-querulous mood of the verse, and ends in the minor’.63 It is to the songwriter’s credit that his words reflect these changes of mood, and that he manages to conclude the song with considerable deftness:

But what was said, or what was done, Shame fa’ me gin I tell; But Oh! I fear the kintra soon Will ken as weel’s myself! Of especial interest in Burns’s note on this song is his comment that he made up words for beautiful melodies ‘in the hurry of other avocations’. He was a busy farmer and later an exciseman. One of the things that appealed to him about songwriting was that he was able to ‘south’ over favourite airs when out on the fields or on horseback. It was probably a practical advantage of songs over poems that he could experiment with ideas even in the brief intervals of peace in a very active life. The list of songs collected by the poet, as distinct from written or extensively revised by him, contains some surprising titles. Yet the issue of artistic ‘signature’ is sometimes complex. For instance, did Burns amend or simply collect a world-famous love-song with which he has traditionally been credited?

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune. As fair art thou, my bonie lass, So deep in love am I;

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And I will love thee still, my Dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry.— Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun: 10 I will love thee still, my Dear, While the sands o’ life shall run.— And fare thee weel, my only Luve! O fare thee weel a while! And I will come again, my Luve, 15 Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.— Burns stated that he collected this song, as distinct from writing it; the implication clearly is that credit belongs primarily at least to oral tradition.64 It was first published by Urbani, an Edinburgh musician, in April 1794, in A Selection of Scots Songs. According to a note in the Advertisement to the volume, The words of the Red, Red Rose, were obligingly given to him [Urbani] by a celebrated Scot’s poet who was so struck with them when sung by a country girl, that he wrote them down, and not being pleased with the air, begged the author to set them to Music, in the stile of the Scot’s Tune. It is possible, however, that when he gave Urbani ‘O my Luve’s like a red, red rose’ Burns deliberately drew attention to the country girl’s singing, and perhaps understated his personal contribution to the song. He may have wished not to offend rival editors who had stronger claims than Urbani on his work as song writer: conceivably, it occurred to him that there was likely to be less objection to a song collected by him than to one avowedly written by him. Urbani apparently told Burns’s friend Alexander Cunningham that he had persuaded the poet to supply him with songs on a regular basis. Worried about the possible effects this information might have on Thomson (and Johnson), to whom he was already committed, Burns wrote in exasperation from Dumfries to Cunningham in November 1793: Urbani has told a damned falsehood—I made no engagements or connections with him whatever.—After he & I had met at Ld Selkirk’s, we lived together three or four days in this town, & had a great deal of converse about our Scots Songs.—I translated a verse of an Italian song for him, or rather made an English verse to suit his rhythm & added two verses which had been already published in Johnson’s Museum,—I likewise gave him a simple old Scots song which I had pickt up in this country, which he promised to set in a suitable manner.—I would not

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even have given him this, had there been any of Mr Thomson’s airs, suitable to it, unoccupied… I would, to tell the fact, most gladly have seen it in our Friend [i.e. Thomson’s]’s publication; but, though I am charmed with it, it is a kind of Song on which I know we would think very differently. It is the only species of Song about which our ideas disagree.—What to me, appears the simple & the wild, to him, & I suspect to you likewise, will be looked on as the ludicrous & the absurd.65 The question of how much Burns contributed to the song is further complicated by the fact that chapbook models have been found for almost every line. Some of the verbal parallels are strikingly close. For instance, the first stanza would appear to recall ‘The Wanton Wife of Castle Gate’:

Her cheeks are like the Roses That blossom fresh in June, O, she’s like a new-strung instrument That’s newly put in tune while the final stanza seems to owe a debt to ‘The True Lover’s Farewell’, a chapbook song published only in 1792:

Fare you well, my own true love, And fare you well for a while, And I will be sure to return again, If I go ten thousand mile. The truth may be that Burns did indeed take down most of the song from a country girl’s singing, but then imparted his own final revision to ‘O my Luve’s like a red, red rose’. In the words of F.B.Snyder, ‘Burns took a phrase here, an adjective there, an entire line somewhere else, rearranged the material thus selected in a new and harmonious pattern, and the result is one of the world’s perfect lyrics’.66 After all, it is no small thing to have recognized the potential of the song in the first place, wherever it came from. Collecting a song of this quality is an achievement in itself. The position with regard to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is very similar. The world has credited Burns with writing ‘Auld Lang Syne’, which it has taken to itself as the most popular of all songs of parting.67 Burns himself claimed only to have taken it down from an old man’s singing— One Song more, & I have done.—Auld lang syne—the air is but mediocre; but the following song, the old Song of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, until I took it down from an old man’s singing; is enough to recommend any air.68

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The truth may be that, as in many other instances, he revised or touched up a traditional song, imparting to it its final distinctive unity of phrasing and sentiment. In a letter to Mrs Dunlop of 7 December 1788, he wrote, Your meeting which you so well describe with your old Schoolfellow and friend, was truly interesting. Out upon the ways of the World! they spoil these ‘social offsprings of the heart,’ Two old veterans of the ‘men of the world’ would have met with little more heart-workings than two old Hacks worn out on the road. Apropos, is not the Scots phrase, ‘Auld lang syne,’ exceedingly expressive.—There is an old song and tune which has often thrilled thro’ my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old Scots songs…. Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired Poet who composed this glorious Fragment! There is more of the fire of native genius in it, than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians.69 In its first stanza and chorus the ‘early’ form of the song he sent to her differs both from that in his letter to Thomson and from the version communicated some years later to James Johnson and printed in The Scots Musical Museum in 1796:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never thought upon? Let’s hae a waught o’ Malaga, For auld lang syne. CHORUS For auld lang syne, my jo, For auld lang syne; Let’s hae a waught o’ Malaga, For auld lang syne. Stanzas two to five, by contrast, are essentially unchanged. While annotating his friend Robert Riddell’s copy of the Museum, Burns wrote beneath a set of verses by Allan Ramsay which begin

Should auld acquaintance be forgot? Tho’ they return with scars, These are the noble hero’s lot Obtain’d in glorious wars… The original and by much the best set of the words of this song are as follows:

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Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days o’ lang syne? CHORUS And for auld lang syne, my jo, For auld lang syne, We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp! And surely I’ll be mine! And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. And for, &c. We twa hae run about the braes, And pu’d the gowans fine; But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot Sin auld lang syne. And for, &c. We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn, Frae mornin’ sun till dine; But seas between us braid hae roar’d Sin auld lang syne. And for, &c. And there’s a hand my trusty fiere! And gie’s a hand o’ thine! And we’ll take a right gude-willy waught, For auld lang syne. And for, &c.70 The greater part of the song, then, remains consistent and unchanged in the different versions. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, Burns’s statement that he collected the song, as distinct from writing it, ought to be believed. Too much should not be made

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of the point that no model for ‘Auld Lang Syne’ has been discovered, apart from a broadside ballad entitled Old Lang Syne. Newly corrected and amended, which has as chorus

On old long syne, On old long syne, my jo, On old long syne; That thou canst never once reflect On old long syne.71 Nor is there anything conclusive about R.H.Cromek’s claim to have ‘proofs that the two best stanzas…are indisputably’ by Burns, as he did not produce these proofs.72 On the other hand it seems only common sense to respect the popular instinct of two hundred years, which has insisted that Burns’s role in this fine old song went beyond collecting. In its overall quality, ‘Auld lang syne’ seems to bear his stamp. Significantly, too, it is signed ‘Z’ in the Scots Musical Museum. ‘Z’ denotes not simply traditional songs, which go unsigned, but ‘old verses, with corrections or additions’. It is possible that the tradition-bearer whose singing introduced Burns to ‘A red, red rose’ was his own wife, Jean Armour, with whose name the song has been romantically linked. Certainly, Burns used the same words ‘from a country girl’s singing’ to describe songs which Jean Armour is known to have sung. One of the most attractive of these is ‘O luve will venture in where it daur na weel be seen’:

O, luve will venture in where it daur na weel be seen, O, luve will venture in where wisdom ance has been; But I will down yon river rove amang the wood sae green, And a’ to pu’ a posie to my ain dear May!73 The theme of the ‘language of flowers’ is a common one in love song, but Burns handles it with great poise and freshness. He was clearly inspired by the lilting tune, which James Dick describes as ‘one of the best-constructed and most artistic…in the Scottish collections of the eighteenth century’.74 Burns informed George Thomson that ‘the air was taken down from Mrs Burns’s voice. It is well known in the West Country, but the old words are trash’. He acknowledged to Thomson that the new song was his own composition. In a longer note on the air, he commented knowledgeably, It appears evident that Oswald composed his ‘Roslin Castle’ on the modulation of this air. In the second part of Oswald’s, in the three first bars, he has either hit on a wonderful similarity to, or else he has entirely borrowed the three first bars of the older air; and the close of both tunes is almost exactly the same. The old verses to which it was sung, when I took down the notes from a country girl’s voice, had no great merit…

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There was a pretty May, and a-milkin’ she went, Wi’ her red, rosy cheeks and her coal-black hair: And she has met a young man a-comin’ o’er the bent; With a double and adieu to thee fair May. O whare are ye goin’, my ain pretty May, Wi’ thy red, rosy cheeks and thy coal-black hair; Unto the yowes a-milkin’, kind Sir, she says, With a double and adieu to thee fair May…75 A common factor about all of the songs which have been considered is that each has a melody to which Burns responded positively. We have seen that when he found a congenial tune he could be tempted to develop a whole theme on the basis of no more than an old chorus. Similarly, a lovely air could persuade him to exercise his skill as collector and toucher-up of traditional material. No more than a hint from its ‘old words’ of a song’s true potential was enough to lead to a completely new set of words, if he liked a particular traditional melody. Likewise, the best of Burns’s original songs were written with particular tunes in mind. He liked to begin by testing out what he called the ‘feature notes’ of a melody. When he made this experiment, certain airs resisted his attempts to fit verses to them. He explained in a letter to George Thomson on 8 November 1792. There is a peculiar rhythmus in many of our airs, and a necessity of adapting syllables to the emphasis, or what I would call, the feature notes, of the tune, that cramps the Poet, and lays him under almost insuperable difficulties.76 If inspiration were to catch fire, Burns had usually to find something special in a tune, including feature notes which could receive words without strain. This clearly happened with an air entitled The Caledonian Hunt’s delight, to which he set a revised version of ‘The Banks o’ Doon’:

Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair? How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary fu’ o’ care! Thou’ll break my heart, thou warbling bird, That wantons thro’ the flowering thorn: Thou minds me o’ departed joys, Departed never to return!

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Oft hae I rov’d by bonie Doon, To see the rose and woodbine twine; 10 And ilka bird sang o’ its Luve, And fondly sae did I o’ mine. Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose, Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree; And my fause luver staw my rose, 15 But, ah! he left the thorn wi’ me.77 Burns took great pleasure in the melody in this instance. He explained its history in some detail in a letter to Thomson of November 1794. There is another air, ‘The Caledonian hunt’s delight,’ to which I wrote a song that you will find in Johnson—‘Ye banks & braes o’ bonie Doon’—; this air, I think, might find a place among your hundred—as Lear says of his Knights.—To make room for it, you may take out (to my taste) either, ‘Young Jockey was the blythest lad,’ or ‘There’s nae luck about the house,’ or, ‘The collier’s bonie lassie,’ or ‘The tither morn,’ or, ‘The sow’s tail’—& put into your additional list.—Not but that these songs have great merit; but still they have not the pathos of ‘The banks o’ Doon’—Do you know the history of the air? It is curious enough.—A good many years ago, a Mr Jas Miller, Writer in your good town, a gentleman whom possibly you know, was in company with our friend, Clarke; & talking of Scots music, Miller expressed an ardent ambition to be able to compose a Scots air.—Mr Clarke, partly by way of joke, told him, to keep to the black keys of the harpsichord, & preserve some kind of rhythm; & he would infallibly compose a Scots air.—Certain it is, that in a few days, Mr Miller produced the rudiments of an air, which Mr Clarke, with some touches & corrections, fashioned into the tune in question.—Ritson, you know, has the same story of the ‘Black keys’; but this account which I have just given you, Mr Clarke informed me of, several years ago.—Now, to shew you how difficult it is to trace the origin of our airs, I have heard it repeatedly asserted that it was an Irish air; nay I met with an Irish gentleman who affirmed he had heard it in Ireland among the old women; while, on the other hand, a Lady of fashion, no less than a Countess, informed me, that the first person who introduced the air into this country was a Baronet’s Lady of her acquaintance, who took down the notes from an itinerant Piper in the Isle of Man.—How difficult then to ascertain the truth respecting our Poesy & Music! I myself, have lately seen a couple of Ballads sung through the streets of Dumfries, with my name at the head of them as the Author, though it was the first time ever I had seen them.78

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The ironies of the situation were not lost on the poet. Did the tune which gave him such pleasure originate in Scotland, on the Isle of Man, or in Ireland?79 With certain airs, however, it was possible to be specific about Scottish provenance. An example is the tune to which Burns wrote one of his most successful original love songs, in which feature notes and words are superbly matched, the bitter-sweet ‘Craigieburn-wood’:

Sweet closes the evening on Craigie-burn-wood, And blythely awaukens the morrow; But the pride of the spring in the Craigie-burn-wood, Can yield me nothing but sorrow. CHORUS Beyond thee, dearie, beyond thee, dearie And O! to be lying beyond thee, O sweetly, soundly weel may he sleep, That’s laid in the bed beyond thee. I see the spreading leaves and flowers, I hear the wild birds singing; But pleasure they hae nane for me While care my heart is wringing. I can na tell, I maun na tell, I dare na for your anger: But secret love will break my heart, If I conceal it langer.— I see thee gracefu’, straight and tall, I see thee sweet and bonnie, But Oh, what will my torments be, If thou refuse thy Johnie!

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To see thee in another’s arms, In love to lie and languish, ‘Twad be my dead, that will be seen, My heart wad brust wi’ anguish. But Jeanie, say thou wilt be mine, Say, thou loes nane before me;

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And a’ my days o’ life to come I’ll gratefully adore thee.80 Burns wrote to Thomson about this song, There is…one sentimental song, of mine, the first in the 4th Vol. of the Museum, which never was known out of the immediate neighbourhood, untill I got it taken down from a country girl’s singing. It is called, Craigieburnwood; & in the opinion of Mr Clarke, is one of the sweetest Scots Songs.—He is quite enthusiastic about it; & I would take his taste in Scots Music against the taste of most connoisseurs.81 Elsewhere he noted, It is remarkable of this air, that it is the confine of that country where the greatest part of our Lowland music, (so far as from the title, words, &c., we can localize it) has been composed. From Craigie-burn, near Moffat, until one reaches the West Highlands, we have scarcely one slow air of any antiquity. The song was composed on a passion which a Mr Gillespie, a particular friend of mine, had for a Miss Lorimer, afterwards a Mrs Whelpdale. The young lady was born at Craigie-burn wood. The chorus is part of an old foolish ballad.82 Jean Lorimer, incidentally, inspired a number of good songs by Burns.83 Two passages from letters to George Thomson vividly describe Burns’s attitude to song-writing, and his method of composition. In April 1793 he wrote: You cannot imagine how much this business of composing for your publication has added to my enjoyments.—What with my early attachment to ballads, Johnson’s Museum, your book; &c. Ballad-making is now as compleatly my hobby-horse, as ever Fortification was Uncle Toby’s; so I’ll e’en canter it away till I come to the limit of my race, (God grant that I may take the right side of the winning-post!) & then chearfully looking back on the honest folks with whom I have been happy, I shall say, or sing, ‘Sae merry as we a’ hae been’—& then, raising my last looks to the whole Human-race, the last voice of Coila shall be—‘Good night & joy be wi’ you a’!’84 A picture of how he usually set about writing a new song is provided by a letter written in September of the same year. Thomson had sent him a long list of song titles. Burns explained that he could not write mechanically to order: Laddie lie near me—must lie by me, for some time.—I do not know the air; & untill I am compleat master of a tune, in my own singing, (such as

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it is) I never can compose for it.—My way is: I consider the poetic Sentiment, correspondent to my idea of the musical expression; then chuse my theme; begin one Stanza; when that is composed, which is generally the most difficult part of the business, I walk out, sit down now & then, look out for objects in Nature around me that are in unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy & workings of my bosom; humming every now & then the air with the verses I have framed: when I feel my Muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, & there commit my effusions to paper; swinging, at intervals, on the hind legs of my elbow-chair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures, as my pen goes on.—Seriously, this, at home, is almost invariably my way. What damned Egotism!85 That Burns’s inspiration remained undimmed to the end is shown by the quality of a song written in the last few months of his life. Jessie Lewars (1778–1855) was the sister of one of his Excise colleagues. She cared for the children and nursed Burns in his last illness. According to Robert Chambers, Burns called on her one day when he was already very ill. He offered, if she would play to him her favourite tune, to write verses for it—just as, at the beginning of his career, he had set words to Nelly Kilpatrick’s favourite reel. She played Lenox love to Blantyre on the harpsichord until he was familiar with it by ear. ‘O, wert thou in the cauld blast’ was the result—one of his finest songs, expressing protective, tender feeling in words which are perfectly adapted to the tune:

O, wert thou in the cauld blast On yonder lea, on yonder lea, My plaidie to the angry airt, I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee; Or did Misfortune’s bitter storms Around thee blaw, around thee blaw, Thy bield should be my bosom, To share it a’, to share it a’. Or were I in the wildest waste, Sae black and bare, sae black and bare, The desart were a paradise, If thou wert there, if thou wert there. Or were I monarch o’ the globe, Wi’ thee to reign, wi’ thee to reign; The brightest jewel in my crown, Wad be my queen, wad be my queen.86 Part of James Dick’s comment on this song deserves to be quoted:

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The hand which penned it was soon to lose its cunning. On the tomb of Franz Schubert, the most prolific German composer, who died at an earlier age than Burns, is inscribed ‘Music has here entombed a rich treasure, but still fairer hopes’. As a song-writer the same might probably be said of Burns, whose life and career resemble in many points those of the composer. A generous countryman said of Schubert that, if he had lived, he would have put the whole German language into music. Of Burns it may be said that, if he had lived, he would have put the whole of Scottish music into verse.87 What Burns accomplished, through his commitment to Jean Armour, James Johnson, and other unassuming lovers of traditional Scottish airs, was nothing less than the creation of an art form which unites words, melodies, and universal emotions.

Notes 1 Burns wrote to George Thomson, about 18 May 1796:

When your Publication is finished, I intend publishing a Collection on a cheap plan, of all the songs I have written for you, the Museum, and etc.—at least of all the songs of which I wish to be called the Author. I do not propose this so much in the way of emolument, as to do justice to my Muse, lest I should be blamed for trash I never saw, or be defrauded by other claimants of what is justly my own. (Letter 695, Letters II 380)

The poet died on 21 July 1796, his wish unfulfilled. 2 Cf. Thomas Crawford’s summary of critical attitudes in Burns: A Study of the Poems and Songs (1960; 2nd edn, 1965) 258–9.

One of the most delightful things about songs is that they do not take up much room on the page—less than the decasyllables of our epics and blank-verse drama, and less, far less, than prose. In countries with a strong tradition of puritanism there has always been a disposition to look down on them for that reason, and to regard song-writing as an essentially godless and frivolous pursuit. It is, therefore, not altogether surprising that there has been considerable disagreement about the importance of the lyrics in relation to the whole course of Burns’s poetic development. Two main answers have been given to this last question during the hundred and sixty years since the poet’s death. The first of these holds that Burns’s preoccupation with the lyric after 1787 was, on the whole, a bad thing; a conclusion which follows from the austere assumption that songwriting is only, at best, a marginal occupation. Thus, although Sir Walter Scott liked many of the songs, and although he was careful to say ‘Let no one suppose that we

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undervalue [them],’ from what he says about them it is clear that in practice he thought them less worthy than grander and more imposing literary kinds: …we cannot but deeply regret that so much of his time and talents should have been frittered away in compiling and composing for musical collections. But the writing of a series of songs for large musical collections, degenerated into a slavish labour which no talents could support, led to negligence, and above all, diverted the poet from his grand plan of dramatic composition. (Review of Cromek’s Reliques, in Quarterly Review (1809) I 30–2) R.L.Stevenson was of the opinion that ‘during the remainder of his life’— that is to say, after 1786—Burns ‘rarely found courage for any more sustained effort than a song,’ and that ‘it is not the less typical of his loss of moral courage that he should have given up all larger ventures, nor the less melancholy that a man who first attacked literature with a hand that was capable of moving mountains, should have spent his later years in whittling cherry-stones’ (‘Some aspects of Robert Burns’, in Familiar Studies of Men and Books (1923) 46)… A corollary of this view is that Burns’s poetry did not develop—or even, as Stevenson believed, that his work declined in quality towards the end of his life. The other assessment of the place of the songs in Burns’s literary career is that put forward as early as 1809 by Francis Jeffrey, when he prophesied that they would ‘transmit the name of Burns to all future generations’ (Review of Croke’s Reliques, in Edinburgh Review, XIII (1809) 263). Echoed and developed by Hazlitt, Carlyle, Tennyson, Angellier, Henley, Wallace, and many lesser commentators, this judgment has almost completely ousted the conception of Scott and Stevenson, although traces of it can sometimes be found in the comments of modern academic critics. 3 ‘It was upon a Lammas night’, ‘Now westlin winds, and slaught’ring guns’, and ‘From thee, Eliza, I must go’. Burns named tunes also for two dirges, ‘When chill November’s surly blast’ and ‘The wintry west extends his blast’, and for his ‘Farewell to the Brethren of St James’s Lodge, Tarbolton’ (no. 42). See Robert Burns, The Kilmarnock Poems (Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1786), ed. Donald A.Low, 1985. 4 ‘There was three kings into the east’ (John Barleycorn. A Ballad), ‘When Guilford good our Pilot stood’ (A Fragment), ‘Behind yon hills where Stinchar flows’, ‘Green grow the rashes, O’, ‘Again rejoicing Nature sees’, ‘The gloomy night is gath’ring fast’, ‘No Churchman am I for to rail and to write’. 5 Early reviews of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect and critical responses to Burns are gathered in Donald A.Low, ed., Robert Burns: The Critical Heritage (London, 1974). 6 For an account of some eighteenth-century views on the kinship between music and poetry, including Burns’s ideal of simplicity and belief in poetry as ‘the most immediate and most

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accurate interpreter of Music’, see James Kinsley, ‘The music of the heart’, Renaissance and Modern Studies VIII (1964) 5–52. Carol McGuirk suggests that ‘Burns’s concept of lyric simplicity is… Horatian: a bard mediates between the two undesirable extremes of “vulgarity” on the one hand and frigid “affected point” on the other’ (Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era (Athens, GA, 1985) 126). 7 Cf. Carol McGuirk’s discussion of no. 261 ‘Sae flaxen were her ringlets’:

the real question posed by this song is not whether its language works. It is whether, despite Burns’s use of generalizing language to put the emotion in perspective, the song really manages sufficiently to displace (evoke, not merely tell) Burns’s strong feelings for Jean, which the song reveals (perhaps too forthrightly) to be more lustful than lyrical. It is only when the song is heard set to the perfectly-matched melody that an answer can be given. When heard performed to its music, as all Burns’s songs (particularly late songs) should be, every one of Burns’s diction choices emerges as judicious even (and I am aware of the extent of my heresy here) ‘wimpling burn’. The dramatic, almost breathless urgency of this splendid air simply requires the heightened ardor of Burns’s diction: the melody not only accommodates but projects and amplifies the urgency of Burns’s lyrics. (‘Scottish hero, Scottish victim: myths of Robert Burns’, in Andrew Hook, ed., The History of Scottish Literature, II (1660–1800) (Aberdeen, 1987) 228) 8 Wordsworth, ‘At the Grave of Burns, 1803’, ll. 19–36; partly written before 1807, published in Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years (1842). 9 ‘The life, genius and achievement of Burns’, in the Centenary Burns IV, 321–4. 10 In ‘Sketch’, written as early as 1784–5, Burns pays tribute to Ramsay as writer of the Scottish pastoral play The Gentle Shepherd (1725)—which contains a number of songs very popular in the eighteenth century—by playfully comparing him to Theocritus:

But thee, Theocritus, wha matches? They’re no Herd’s ballats, Maro’s catches; Squire Pope but busks his skinklin patches O’ Heathen tatters: I pass by hunders, nameless wretches, That ape their betters. In this braw age o’ wit and lear, Will nane the Shepherd’s whistle mair Blaw sweetly in his native air And rural grace; And wi’ the far-fam’d Grecian share A rival place?

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Yes! there is ane; a Scottish callan! There’s ane! come forrit, honest Allan! Thou need na jouk behint the hallan, A chiel sae clever; The teeth o’ time may gnaw Tamtallan, But thou’s for ever. Thou paints auld Nature to the nines, In thy sweet Caledonian lines; Nae gowden stream thro’ myrtle twines Where Philomel, While nightly breezes sweep the vines, Her griefs will tell! Thy rural loves are Nature’s sel’; Nae bombast spates o’ nonsense swell; Nae snap conceits, but that sweet spell O’ witchin’ loove, That charm that can the strongest quell, The sternest move. In gowany glens thy burnie strays, Where bonie lasses bleach their claes; Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes Wi’ hawthorns gray, Where blackbirds join the shepherd’s lays At close o’ day. (Kinsley no. 82, ll. 19–54) 11 Francis Collinson distinguishes between traditional and national songs, using ‘national song’ to refer to songs ‘composed, or ‘patched’ from old ones, expressly for publication’ (The Traditional and National Music of Scotland, 1966, 2). As he notes, many of Burns’s national songs possess an element of the traditional, in that they were written to anonymous traditional tunes. 12 Roger Fiske discusses the export to England of Scottish song tradition in the eighteenth century in ‘The Scotch song comes to London’, chapter I of his Scotland in Music: A European Enthusiasm (Cambridge, 1983). See also Collinson, op. cit, especially 124–32, and David Johnson, Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1972) 130–49. 13 Thomas Crawford, Society and the Lyric: A Study of the Song Culture of Eighteenth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh 1979) 8. 14 Letter 125, Letters I 138–9.

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15 ibid., 137–8. 16 Text from a holograph manuscript, bought by the National Library of Scotland in 1980. The poem was written on the same day as a celebrated letter to Mrs Dunlop stating that

The appellation of, a Scotch Bard, is by far my highest pride; to continue to deserve it is my most exalted ambition.—Scottish scenes, and Scottish story are the themes I could wish to sing.—I have no greater, no dearer aim than to have it in my power, unplagu’d with the routine of business, for which Heaven knows I am unfit enough, to make leisurely pilgrimages through Caledonia; to sit on the fields of her battles; to wander on the romantic banks of her rivers; and to muse by the stately tower or venerable ruins, once the honored abodes of her heroes. (Letter 90, Letters I 101)

See Donald A.Low, ‘Burns’s “Epistle to A Tiviotdale Farmer’s Wife”’, Scottish Literary Journal XIII/1 (May 1986) 47–50. 17 Burns names the tune in his commonplace book as ‘I am a man unmarried’. See no. 1 ‘O once I lov’d a bonnie lass’. 18 Robert Burns’s Commonplace Book 1783–1785, ed. J.C.Ewing and D.Cook (1938; 1965 edn introduced by D.Daiches) 37–8. 19 ibid., 38–9. 20 On further connections between Burns and sentimental literature, see McGuirk, Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era. 21 Commonplace Book, 41. 22 W.Aiton, A General View of the Agriculture of… Ayr (1811) 626–7. 23 See songs nos 31–8. Thomas Crawford discusses the sources, structure, and meaning of Love and Liberty in Society and the Lyric, 185–210. 24

I have forgot the Cantata you allude to, as I kept no copy, and indeed did not know that it was in existence; however, I remember that none of the songs pleased myself, except the last—something about, Courts for cowards were erected, Churches built to please the priest. (Letter 586, Letters II 244)

Burns had in fact thought of publishing the cantata in 1787, but Hugh Blair, a leading Edinburgh critic and divine, advised him that The Whole of What is called the Cantata, the Songs of the Beggars and their Doxies, with the Grace at the end of them, are altogether unfit in my opinion for publication. They are by much too licentious; and fall below the dignity which Mr. Burns possesses in the rest of his poems & would rather degrade them. (Low, ed., Robert Burns: The Critical Heritage, 82)

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25 Sarah Tytler and J.L.Watson, The Songstresses of Scotland (1871) I 189. The ‘Hunters’ Ball’ was given by the Caledonian Hunt, an association of noblemen and country gentlemen to whom Burns had dedicated his Edinburgh edition. 26 Letter 569, Letters II 220. The first song to which Burns refers is ‘The Flowers o’ the Forest’ by Jean Elliot (1727–1805); see The Oxford Book of Scottish Verse, ed. John MacQueen and Tom Scott (Oxford, 1966) 337–8. 27 Letter 149, Letters I 170. On Burns’s instruction (list in Gray MS, Alloway), ‘There’s cauld kail in Aberdeen’ by the Duke of Gordon was included in volume II of The Scots Musical Museum (no. 162). Burns corresponded with the Rev. John Skinner, whose ‘Tullochgorum’ he described as ‘the best Scotch song Scotland ever saw’; it was included as song 289, along with three other songs by Skinner, in volume 3 of the Museum (nos 201, 285, 293). Alexander Ross (1699–1784) was the author of several popular Scots songs, including ‘Wooed and Married and A’ and ‘The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow’. Three were printed in the Museum (nos 269, 439, 537). 28 Letter 145, Letters, I 163. 29

The Museum had its drawbacks as a collection, too. Its print was cheap and nasty to look at. Its musical settings, done by the organist Stephen Clarke, were often extremely dull and uninteresting; in his eagerness to avoid the excessive decoration of Corri and Urbani, Clarke tended to err in the opposite direction. (David Johnson, op. cit., 148)

Cf. Cedric Thorpe Davie’s comment, ‘Kinsley has perpetuated countless errors and misprints of underlaying which the carelessness, laziness or ignorance of musical editors like Stephen Clarke allowed to pass’ (‘Robert Burns, writer of songs’, in Donald A.Low, ed., Critical Essays on Robert Burns (1975) 161). 30 William Tytler, ‘Dissertation on Scottish music’, quoted in Joseph Ritson, Scotish Songs [1794] I x. 31 Journal entry, [31 August] 1787, Robert Burns’s Tours of the Highlands and Stirlingshire 1787, ed. Raymond Lamont Brown (Ipswich, 1973) 19. 32 Cf. no. 60, ‘Blythe, blythe and merry was she’. Scots Musical Museum (1788) no. 180. 33 In 1788, when he was appointed to the Excise, Burns wrote ironically about his change of occupation:

Searching auld wives’ barrels, Ochon, the day! That clarty barm should stain my laurels; But—what’ll ye say! These muvin’ things ca’d wives and weans Wad muve the very hearts o’ stanes! (‘An Extemporaneous Effusion on being appointed to the Excise’, K 193)

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As an exciseman in the ‘Dumfries first Itinerancy’, from the autumn of 1789, the district he had to cover was so large that he had to ride two hundred miles a week. He wrote to his fellow officer John Mitchell in August 1790, For my part, I have galloped over my ten parishes these four days, untill this moment that I am just alighted, or rather, that my poor jackass skeleton of a horse has let me down; for the miserable devil has been on his knees half a score of times within the last twenty miles, telling me in his own way, ‘Behold, am not I thy faithful jade of a horse, on which thou hast ridden these many years!!!’ (Letter 417, Letters II 49) 34 Quoted in J.Cuthbert Hadden, George Thomson: The Friend of Burns (1898) 20. 35 ibid., 302–45; Fiske, op. cit., 55–79. 36 Chambers-Wallace (1896) III 330. 37 Letter 507, Letters II 148–50. 38 ‘Thomson meddled and muddled on without regarding [Burns]. Airs and verses alike had to submit to his editorial jurisdiction’ (Dick xviii). Cf. Thorpe Davie, op. cit, 184, ‘Time has dealt harshly but not unjustly with Thomson; his absurd dreams have faded long ago…’. R.H. Fowler has recently attempted to rehabilitate Thomson’s reputation in his Robert Burns (1988) (see especially Appendix F: The tarnished image of George Thomson’, 254–62). 39 Letter 706, Letters II 389. 40 Letter 131, Letters I 151. 41 Notes 33. 42 Letter 582, Letters II 235–6. 43 Cf. W.J.Murray, ‘Poetry and politics: Burns and revolution’, in R.F.Brissenden and J.C.Eade (eds), Studies in the Eighteenth Century IV (Canberra, 1979) 57–82. 44 Letter 584, Letters II 237–8. 45 Select Collection (1801) 133. 46 Thorpe Davie, op. cit., 177. 47 Letter 695, Letters II 380. Cf. note 1, above. 48 James Barke and Sydney Goodsir Smith, eds, Robert Burns: The Merry Muses of Caledonia, with a prefatory note and some authentic Burns texts contributed by J.DeLancey Ferguson (Edinburgh, 1959). 49 Kinsley no. 109, ll. 1–31, 53–66. 50 See no. 24. As David Daiches has noted, this song, to the tune ‘Black Joke’, is

more in the mode of the English street ballad than in any Scottish tradition. It is a careless piece, evidently done in a mood of verse doodling; the change of metre in the seventh line and the dwindling down in the end into casual bawdry indicate this clearly enough. (1CPB 1783–5, introduction, xxvi) 51 ‘Ye jovial boys who love the joys’, ll. 25–32. For the complete text, see no. 25. 52 ‘Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine’, ll. 1–16. For the complete text, see no. 157. 53 Letter 557, Letters II 206. Anne Park bore Burns a daughter on 31 March 1791. In The Merry Muses of Caledonia the song has a ‘Postscript by Another Hand’:

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The kirk and state may join and tell, To do sic things I manna: The kirk and state may gae to h—ll, And I shall gae to Anna. She is the sunshine o’ my e’e, To live but her I canna: Had I on earth but wishes three, The first should be my Anna. 54 Allen…has lent me a quantity of Burns’s unpublished, and never-to-be-published, Letters. They are full of oaths and obscene songs. What an antithetical mind!—tenderness, roughness—delicacy, coarseness—sentiment, sensuality—soaring and grovelling, dirt and deity—all mixed up in that one compound of inspired clay!

(Journal entry, 13 December 1813, Lord Byron: Selected Letters and Journals, ed. Leslie A. Marchand (1982) 93) 55 Letter 651, Letters II 336. 56 ‘When maukin bucks, at early f—s’, ll. 1–8. For complete text, see no. 275. 57 Letter 499 and note, Letters II 138. 58 Letter 557, Letters II 204. 59 ‘When Princes and Prelates and het-headed zealots’, ll.1–8. For complete text, see no. 223. Burns wrote to Graham of Fintry,

As to France, I was her enthusiastic votary in the beginning of the business. When she came to shew her old avidity for conquest… I altered my sentiments.—A tippling Ballad which I made on the Prince of Brunswick’s breaking up his camp, and sung one convivial evening, I shall…send you, as it is not every body’s reading. (Letter 530, letters II 174) 60 Kinsley, Commentary, 1416. 61 ‘My heart was ance as blythe and free’, ll. 1–8. See no. 68. 62 Notes 24. 63 Dick 357. 64 See no. 258. ‘It has long been acclaimed as one of Burns’s most exquisite songs, but Burns described it as “a simple old Scots song which I had pickt up in this country”’ (Mary Ellen Brown, Burns and Tradition (1984) 73). 65 Letter 593A, Letters II 258–9. 66 F.B.Snyder, Life of Robert Burns (New York, 1932) 470. 67 See no. 105. Scots Musical Museum, no. 413 (1796) ll. 1–8. 68 To Thomson, early September 1793; Letter 586, Letters II 246. 69 Letter 290, Letters I 342–5. 70 Notes 9–10. 71 Centenary Burns 1896, III 408. 72 R.H.Cromek, Select Scotish Songs (1810) II 128. But see no. 105 note on what may be a Burnsian echo of Allan Ramsay. 73 See no. 201. SMM no. 373 (1792). 74 Dick 394.

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75 Letter 644, Letters II 316; Edinburgh University Library: Laing MSS; see Burns Chronicle (1922) 9. 76 Letter 514, Letters II 157. 77 No. 162. SMM no. 374 (1792), signed B. 78 Letter 646, Letters II 325–6. 79 This question remains open. Dick comments, ‘In Aird’s Airs, 1794, iv. No. 132, Irish is affixed to the tune, entitled Caledonian Hunt’s Delight, so that it appears there was a popular belief that the melody was Irish’ (Dick 393). 80 No. 169. SMM no. 301 (1792). 81 Letter 557, Letters II 206. 82 Notes 53. 83 Nos 169, 241, 277, 280, 281, 286, 288, 290, 291, 294 and 296 all pay tribute to ‘Chloris’. 84 Letter 557, Letters II 204. 85 Letter 586, Letters II 242. 86 No. 302. ‘Address to a Lady’, Currie, 2nd edn (1801) IV 380.

Carol McGuirk comments, Though the song sounds ‘real’, the situation it describes was exactly opposite to the relationship that inspired it. The song offers the speaker’s protection to Jessie in various threatening situations; when he wrote it, however, it was he who was receiving the help his song hypothetically showers on Jessie. Burns probably transferred his own jeopardized situation to her in order to imagine a reciprocity in their friendship; he offers an equal support throughout vicissitude and in the final quatrain extends his pledge to assert that the girl would be prized above all even were he ‘monarch o’ the globe.’ ‘Oh wert thou in the cauld blast’ is characteristic of Burns as a bard in the way it abstracts from a painful situation and a fragmentary old text a powerful, transcendent feeling. The concluding line, however, implies reality in its stress on the subjunctive ‘wad’ (would). Jessie ‘wad be’ his queen if life worked like lyric poetry. The moving connotation—and the plain fact—is that life does not. (McGuirk, Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era, 144) 87 Dick 370.

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SONGS and Notes 1

O once I lov’d a bonnie lass Tune: untitled in Scots Musical Museum

O once I lov’d a bonnie lass, An’ aye I love her still an’ whilst that virtue warms my breast I’ll love my handsome Nell. As bonnie lasses I hae seen,

5

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And mony full as braw, But for a modest gracefu’ mein The like I never saw. A bonny lass I will confess, Is pleasant to the e’e, 10 But without some better qualities She’s no a lass for me. But Nelly’s looks are blythe and sweet, And what is best of a’, Her reputation is compleat, 15 And fair without a flaw; She dresses ay sae clean and neat, Both decent and genteel; And then there’s something in her gait Gars ony dress look weel. 20 A gaudy dress and gentle air May slightly touch the heart, But it’s innocence and modesty That polishes the dart. ‘Tis this in Nelly pleases me, 25 ‘Tis this enchants my soul; For absolutely in my breast She reigns without controul. SMM no. 551 (1803) Burns’s first song, written in 1774. In a famous autobiographical letter sent to Dr John Moore in August 1787, he recalled the time when he ‘first committed the sin of RHYME.’ You know our country custom of coupling a man and woman together as Partners in the labors of Harvest.—In my fifteenth autumn, my Partner was a bewitching creature who just counted an autumn less. My scarcity of English denies me the power of doing her justice in that language; but you know the Scotch idiom, She was a bonie, sweet, sonsie lass.—In short, she altogether unwittingly to herself, initiated me in a certain

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delicious Passion, which in spite of acid Disappointment, gin-horse Prudence and bookworm Philosophy, I hold to be the first of human joys, our dearest pleasure here below…. (Letter 125, Letters I 137) The girl was Nelly Kilpatrick, daughter of a farmer near Dalrymple. She was fond of singing, and Burns states that’ ‘twas her favorite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme’. The reel in question, which has not been identified, was probably known to Burns as ‘I am a man unmarried’, because ‘O once I lov’d a bonnie lass’ is included with this tune title in the poet’s First Commonplace Book as part of an entry dated August 1783. Burns notes, There is certainly some connection between Love, and Music and Poetry…. For my own part I never had the least thought or inclination of turning Poet till I got once heartily in Love, and then Rhyme and Song were, in a manner, the spontaneous language of my heart. The following composition was the first of my performances, and done at an early period of life, when my heart glowed with honest warm simplicity; unacquainted, and uncorrupted with the ways of a wicked world. The performance is, indeed, very puerile and silly; but I am always pleased with it, as it recals to my mind those happy days when my heart was yet honest and my tongue was sincere. The subject of it was a young girl who really deserved all the praises I have bestowed on her. I not only had this opinion of Her then—but I actually think so still, now that the spell is long since broken, and the inchantment at an end. The song comes next; then Burns’s criticism of his own verses, showing his awareness both of strengths and of weaknesses in his first attempt at song-writing. Lest my works should be thought below Criticism; or meet with a Critic who, perhaps, will not look on them with so candid and favorable an eye; I am determined to criticise them myself. [1–4] The first distic of the first stanza is quite too much in the flimsy strain of our ordinary street ballads; and on the other hand, the second distic is too much in the other extreme. The expression is a little akward, and the sentiment too serious. [5–8] Stanza the second I am well pleased with; and I think it conveys a fine idea of that amiable part the Sex—the agreables; or what in our Scotch dialect we call a sweet sonsy Lass. [9– 12]

The third Stanza has a little of the flimsy turn in it; and the third line has rather too serious a cast.

[13– 16]

The fourth Stanza is a very indifferent one; the first line is, indeed all in the strain of the second Stanza, but the rest is mostly an expletive.

[17– 20]

The thoughts in the fifth Stanza come finely up to my favorite idea of a sweet sonsy Lass: the last line however, halts a little.

[21– 4]

The same sentiments are kept up with equal spirit and tenderness in the sixth Stanza but the second and fourth lines ending with short syllables hurts the whole.

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The seventh Stanza has several minute faults; but I remember I composed it in a wild enthusiasm of passion, and to this hour I never reccollect it, but my heart melts, and my blood sallies at the rememberance. (1CPB 1783–5 3–5)

The melody reproduced here is printed without title along with Burns’s words in SMM in 1803. Despite a claim by William Stenhouse that ‘it is said to be very ancient’ (Stenhouse (1853) 482), it is probably an eighteenth-century composition. Cf. John Glen, Early Scottish Melodies (1900) 228: This song is said to be Robert Burns’s first attempt at lyric, and he directed it to be sung to a reel tune, a favourite of his heroine, called, ‘I am a man unmarried’. Stenhouse tells us, so the story goes, that Burns abandoned the idea of using this tune, ‘and had it set to the beautiful slow melody in the Museum, which he picked up and transmitted to the publishers of that work; it is said to be very ancient.’ We are afraid Stenhouse’s story cannot be trusted. Why was the song, with its beautiful slow melody, not published before the death of the poet and of Stephen Clarke? It may be remarked that the sixth volume of the ‘Scots Musical Museum’ did not appear till March 1804, though its preface is dated 4th June 1803. We have failed to find any tune whatever bearing the name of ‘I am a man unmarried’. It might have been a local name for some wellknown reel, which cannot now be discovered. The supposed ancient air given in the Museum is, we are disposed to think, from the style of its concluding cadence, composed for that work by some precentor.

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2 Now westlin winds, and slaught’ring guns Tune: Port Gordon

Now westlin winds, and slaught’ring guns Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather; And the moor-cock springs, on whirring wings Amang the blooming heather: Now waving grain, wide o’er the plain, 5 Delights the weary farmer; And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night, To muse upon my charmer. The Pairtrick lo’es the fruitfu’ fells;

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The Plover lo’es the mountains; 10 The Woodcock haunts the lanely dells; The soaring Hern the fountains: Thro’ lofty groves the Cushat roves, The path o’ Man to shun it; The hazel bush o’erhangs the Thrush, 15 The spreading thorn the Linnet. Thus ev’ry kind their pleasure find, The savage and the tender; Some, social join, and leagues combine; Some solitary wander: 20 Avaunt, away! the cruel sway, Tyrannic Man’s dominion; The Sportsman’s joy, the murdering cry, The fluttering gory pinion. But Peggy dear, the ev’ning’s clear, Thick flies the skimming swallow; The sky is blue, the fields in view All fading-green and yellow: Come let us stray our gladsome way, And view the charms o’ Nature, The rustling corn, the fruited thorn, And ilka happy creature.

25

30

We’ll gently walk, and sweetly talk, Till the silent moon shines clearly; I’ll grasp thy waist, and fondly prest, 35 Swear how I lo’e thee dearly. Not vernal show’rs to budding flowers, Not Autumn to the Farmer, So dear can be, as thou to me, My fair, my lovely Charmer! 40 SMM no. 351 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 81 pairtrick partridge cushat wood-pigeon

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Written in 1775 at the time of Burns’s infatuation with Peggy Thomson of Kirkoswald. ‘I spent my seventeenth summer’, he wrote to Dr Moore in August 1787, On a smuggling coast a good distance from home at a noted school to learn Mensuration, Surveying, Dialling, etc.… I went on with a high hand in my Geometry; till the sun entered Virgo, a month which is always a carnival in my bosom, a charming Fillette who lived next door to the school overset my Trigonomertry [sic], and set me off in a tangent from the sphere of my studies. (Letter 125, Letters I 140) The first 8 lines of the song were copied into the first commonplace book in August 1785 under the title ‘HAR’STE—A Fragment’:

Now breezy win’s and slaughtering guns Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather, And the muir cock springs on whirring wings Amang the blooming heather. Now waving crops, with yellow tops, Delight the weary Farmer, And the Moon shines bright when I rove at night To muse on XXXXX XXXXXX (1CPB 1783–5 37) The context indicates that two words in cipher in the last line following ‘I muse on’ were probably ‘Jeany Armour’. Burns’s sister remembered that in one version of the song, now lost, Jean Armour was celebrated instead of Peggy, with her surname replacing ‘charmer’ in line 8. ‘Now westlin winds’, to the tune I had a horse, and I had nae mair, was one of only three songs included in the Kilmarnock edition of 1786. Its title there is ‘SONG composed in August’. Unusually for a love-song, ‘Now westlin winds’ includes four lines of protest against the ‘slaught’ring guns’ of sportsmen (ll. 21–4). Three years later, Burns sent the song to James Johnson for inclusion in SMM. A note in his ‘List of Songs for 3d Volume of the Scots Musical Museum’, sent to Johnson on 24 April 1789, reads: ‘Now westlin winds—tune—Port Gordon—Mr Burns words— printed—but he gave in writing some alterations which please observe’. These alterations add to the Scots diction in the opening stanzas. In the event, Johnson printed the song in volume 4 to the tune When the king comes o’er the water, which he wrongly entitled Come, kiss wi’ me. Burns probably saw the song in proof: minor differences exist between the manuscript version sent to Johnson (Hastie MS) and the printed text. The tune here is the one originally intended for the Museum: Port Gordon. It occurs in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 25.

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3 I dream’d I lay where flowers were springing Tune: I dream’d I lay

I dream’d I lay where flowers were springing Gaily in the sunny beam; List’ning to the wild birds singing, By a falling crystal stream: Straight the sky grew black and daring; 5 Thro’ the woods the whirlwinds rave; Trees with agèd arms were warring, O’er the swelling, drumlie wave.

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Such was my life’s deceitful morning, Such the pleasures I enjoy’d; 10 But lang or noon, loud tempests storming A’ my flowery bliss destroy’d. Tho’ fickle Fortune has deceiv’d me, She promis’d fair, and perform’d but ill; Of mony a joy and hope bereav’d me, 15 I bear a heart shall support me still. SMM no. 146 (1788), signed X; Hastie MS, f. 32 drumlie troubled, muddy lang or long before ‘These two stanzas I composed when I was seventeen, and are among the eldest of my printed pieces’ (Notes 28). Burns clearly knew Alison Cockburn’s celebrated song ‘Flowers of the Forest’, which includes the lines

I’ve seen Tweed’s silver streams, glittering in the sunny beams, Grow drumly and dark as they roll’d on their way. O fickle Fortune! why this cruel sporting? The air in SMM was originally sent to Burns by Johnson as a setting for a song by James ‘Balloon’ Tytler, ‘One night I dream’d I lay most easy’. (Johnson has a characteristically misspelt marginal note, ‘do not loss this, as I have not a nother copy. It is a pritty tune. J.J.’) Burns substituted his own words, which, with the tune, were reprinted in Napier’s Scots Songs (1792) II no. 88. Tytler’s song was included as SMM no. 126 (1788).

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4 Behind yon hills where Stinchar flows Tune: My Nanie, O

Behind yon hills where Stinchar flows ‘Mang moors an’ mosses many, O, The wintry sun the day has clos’d, And I’ll awa to Nanie, O.

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The westlin wind blaws loud an’ shill; The night’s baith mirk and rainy, O; But I’ll get my plaid an’ out I’ll steal, An’ owre the hill to Nanie, O.

5

My Nanie’s charming, sweet an’ young; Nae artfu’ wiles to win ye, O: 10 May ill befa’ the flattering tongue That wad beguile my Nanie, O. Her face is fair, her heart is true, As spotless as she’s bonie, O; The op’ning gowan, wat wi’ dew, Nae purer is than Nanie, O. A country lad is my degree, An’ few there be that ken me, O; But what care I how few they be, I’m welcome ay to Nanie, O.

15

20

My riches a’s my penny-fee, An’ I maun guide it cannie, O; But warl’s gear ne’er troubles me, My thoughts are a’, my Nanie, O. Our auld Guidman delights to view 25 His sheep an’ kye thrive bonie, O; But I’m as blythe that hauds his pleugh, An’ has nae care but Nanie, O. Come weel come woe, I care na by, I’ll take what Heav’n will sen’ me, O; Nae ither care in life have I, But live, an’ love my Nanie, O.

30

Poems (1787) yon those over there shill shrill

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mirk dark plaid length of woollen cloth, often tartan, used as outer garment gowan ‘the flower of the daisy, dandelion, hawkweed, &c’ (Burns) penny-fee wages cannie carefully warl’s gear worldly wealth Guidman master kye cattle hauds holds pleugh plough by about (it) Burns entered an early version of this song in his first commonplace book in April 1784 (to the tune As I came in by London O), with an introductory note: Shenstone observes finely that love-verses writ without any real passion are the most nauseous of all conceits; and I have often thought that no man can be a proper critic of Love composition, except he himself, in one, or more instances, have been a warm votary of this passion.—As I have been all along, a miserable dupe to Love, and have been led into a thousand weaknesses and follies by it, for that reason I put the more confidence in my critical skill in distinguishing foppery and conceit, from real passion and nature.—Whether the following song will stand the test, I will not pretend to say, because it is MY OWN; only I can say it was, at the time, real. (1CPB 1783–5 11–12) ‘Nanie’ has been variously identified as a Kilmarnock girl, Agnes Sherriff, a Tarbolton farmer’s daughter called Agnes Fleming and Nanie Fleming, a servant in Calcothill, Lochlea, who said in later life, ‘Aye, atweel [yes, indeed] he made a great wark [fuss] about me’. In sending a copy of ‘Behind yon hills where Lugar flows’ to George Thomson in October 1792 for inclusion in SC, Burns commented, in the sentiment and style of our Scotish airs, there is a pastoral simplicity, a something that one may call, the Doric style and dialect of vocal music, to which a dash of our native tongue and manners is…peculiarly apposite…. Now, don’t let it enter your head, that you are under any necessity of taking my verses.—I have long ago made up my mind as to my own reputation in the business of Authorship; & have nothing to be pleased, or offended at, in your adoption or rejection of my verses. (Letter 511, Letters II 153) The song appeared in the SC in 1793. After the poet’s death, it was included in SMM no. 580 (1803). The air was first printed in Orpheus Caledonius (1725) no. 38 and was also included in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753) V no. 3.

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5 O Tibbie, I hae seen the day Tune: Invercauld’s Reel

CHORUS O Tibbie, I hae seen the day, Ye wadna been sae shy; For laik o’ gear ye lightly me, But, trowth, I care na by. Yestreen I met you on the moor, Ye spak na but gaed by like stoure: Ye geck at me because I’m poor, But fient a hair care I. Tibbie, I hae, etc. I doubt na, lass, but ye may think,

5

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Because ye hae the name o’ clink, That ye can please me at a wink, Whene’er ye like to try. Tibbie, I hae, etc.

10

But sorrow tak him that’s sae mean, Altho’ his pouch o’ coin were clean, Wha follows ony saucy quean 15 That looks sae proud and high. Tibbie, I hae, etc. Altho’ a lad were e’er sae smart, If that he want the yellow dirt, Ye’ll cast your head anither airt, And answer him fu’ dry. Tibbie, I hae, etc.

20

But if he hae the name o’ gear, Ye’ll fasten to him like a brier, Tho’ hardly he for sense or lear Be better than the kye. Tibbie, I hae, etc. But, Tibbie, lass, tak my advice, 25 Your daddie’s gear maks you sae nice, The deil a ane wad spier your price, Were you as poor as I. Tibbie, I hae, etc. SMM no. 196 (1788), signed X; Hastie MS, f. 50 laik o’ gear lack of money lightly slight, disparage trowth truly by about it yestreen yesterday evening gaed went stoure dust geck toss your head, scorn fient a the devil a clink cash

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quean lass airt direction lear learning kye cattle diel a ane not a single one spier ask ‘This song I composed about the age of seventeen’ (Notes 39.) A version of ‘O Tibbie, I hae seen the day’ is included in Burns’s first Commonplace Book, under the date September 1784, with two additional stanzas:

When comin’ hame on Sunday last Upon the road as I cam’ past Ye snufft an’ gae your head a cast But trouth I caretna by.— There lives a lass beside yon park I’d rather hae her in her sark Than you wi’ a’ your thousand mark That gars you look sae high. (1CPB 1783–5 20–1) ‘Tibbie’ was Isabella Steven of Littlehill, close to Lochlie, which Burns’s father farmed from Whitsun 1777, when Burns was eighteen. The song writer’s contempt for Tibbie’s preoccupation with money is very characteristic. The song shows that when still very young Burns was capable of matching derisive words to music with considerable skill and feeling for the spirit of a tune. The tune, Invercauld’s Reel, had been printed in Stewart’s Reels (1762) and McGlashan’s Strathspey Reels (1780) and was clearly already very popular. In his commonplace book, Burns describes it as ‘Invercald’s reel— Strathspey’.

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6 One night as I did wander Tune: John Anderson my jo, John

One night as I did wander, When corn begins to shoot, I sat me down to ponder Upon an auld tree root: Auld Aire ran by before me, 5 And bicker’d to the seas; A cushat crouded o’er me That echoed thro’ the braes. Cromek, Reliques (1808) cushat wood-pigeon crouded made a croo sound An attractive example of how the young Burns instinctively matched words to familiar airs.

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7 It was upon a Lammas night Tune: Corn rigs

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It was upon a Lammas night, When corn rigs are bonie, Beneath the moon’s unclouded light, I held awa to Annie: The time flew by, wi’ tentless heed, Till ‘tween the late and early, Wi’ sma’ persuasion she agreed, To see me thro’ the barley.

5

CHORUS Corn rigs, an’ barley rigs, An’ corn rigs are bonie: I’ll ne’er forget that happy night, Amang the rigs wi’ Annie.

10

The sky was blue, the wind was still, The moon was shining clearly; I set her down, wi’ right good will, 15 Amang the rigs o’ barley: I ken’t her heart was a’ my ain; I lov’d her most sincerely; I kiss’d her owre and owre again, Amang the rigs o’ barley. 20 I lock’d her in my fond embrace; Her heart was beating rarely: My blessings on that happy place, Amang the rigs o’ barley! But by the moon and stars so bright, That shone that night so clearly! She ay shall bless that happy night, Amang the rigs o’ barley.

25

I hae been blythe wi’ Comrades dear; I hae been merry drinking; 30 I hae been joyfu’ gath’rin gear; I hae been happy thinking;

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But a’ the pleasures e’er I saw, Tho’ three times doubl’d fairly, That happy night was worth them a’, 35 Amang the rigs o’ barley. Poems (1786) Lammas harvest season rigs ridges gear money, possessions fairly indeed Burns stated that this song, included in the Kilmarnock edition in 1786, was written before his twenty-third year: the precise date of composition is unrecorded. In an interleaved copy of Johnson’s SMM he noted about the tune Corn rigs, There must have been an old song under this title, the chorus of it is all that remains:–

O corn rigs and rye rigs, O corn rigs is bonie; Whare’er you meet a bonnie lass, Preen up her apron, Johnie.’ (Notes 22) He also knew Ramsay’s song ‘My Patie is a Lover Gay’ from The Gentle Shepherd, which ends

Then I’ll comply and marry Pate, And syne my cockernony [hair-knot] He’s free to touzle air and late [ruffle early] Where corn rigs are bony. ‘It was upon a Lammas night’ is one of Burns’s most successful love songs, proving that by his early twenties he was able to match words to the spirit of a traditional tune, in this instance one which is jaunty and carefree. Burns writes in the first person and achieves a note of delight in remembered passion. Who Annie was is not known for certain, but the youngest daughter of John Rankine, a farmer in Burns’s neighbourhood, subsequently claimed that she was the subject of the song. The tune probably originated in Scotland, although its seventeenth-century printings are English. It is included in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) II no. 47 and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753) V no. 20.

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8 From thee, Eliza, I must go Tune: Gilderoy

From thee, Eliza, I must go, And from my native shore: The cruel fates between us throw A boundless ocean’s roar;

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But boundless oceans, roaring wide 5 Between my Love and me, They never, never can divide My heart and soul from thee. Farewell, farewell, Eliza dear, The maid that I adore! 10 A boding voice is in mine ear, We part to meet no more! But the latest throb that leaves my heart, While Death stands victor by, That throb, Eliza, is thy part, 15 And thine that latest sigh! Poems (1786) The first stanza suggests a date of composition shortly before the publication of his Poems at Kilmarnock in the summer of 1786, when Burns was expecting to emigrate from Scotland to Jamaica. In his autobiographical letter to Dr Moore, however, he refers to this song as having been written before his twenty-third year (Letter 125, Letters I 141). He would appear, then, to have recast in 1786 at least the first stanza of an earlier version. In doing so, he took the chance to appeal for sympathy by drawing attention to the fact that he was leaving his ‘native shore’. Eliza may be Elizabeth Miller of Mauchline, referred to in a letter to James Smith of 11 June 1787 as ‘my quondam Eliza’ (Letter 113, Letters I 121). The air is printed in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) II no. 47.

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9 The wintry west extends his blast Tune: McPherson’s Farewell

The wintry west extends his blast, And hail and rain does blaw; Or, the stormy north sends driving forth, The blinding sleet and snaw: While, tumbling brown, the Burn comes down, And roars frae bank to brae; And bird and beast, in covert, rest, And pass the heartless day. ‘The sweeping blast, the sky o’ercast,’* The joyless winter-day,

5

10

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Let others fear, to me more dear, Than all the pride of May: The Tempest’s howl, it soothes my soul, My griefs it seems to join; The leafless trees my fancy please, 15 Their fate resembles mine! * Dr Young (Burns’s note)

Thou POW’R SUPREME, whose mighty Scheme, These woes of mine fulfil; Here, firm, I rest, they must be best, Because they are Thy Will! 20 Then all I want (Oh, do thou grant This one request of mine!) Since to enjoy Thou dost deny, Assist me to resign! Poems (1786) ‘The eldest of my printed pieces’ (Burns to Dr Moore, August 1787; Letter 125, Letters I 141. ‘Winter, a Dirge’ is in the Kilmarnock Poems). In his first commonplace book, the title is ‘Song—(Tune McPherson’s Farewel)’, and the entry is dated April 1784. There Burns comments, As I am, what the men of the world, if they knew of such a man, would call a whimsical Mortal; I have various sources of pleasure & enjoyment which are, in a manner, peculiar to myself; or some here & there such other out-of-the-way person.—Such is the peculiar pleasure I take in the season of Winter, more than the rest of the year—This, I believe, may be partly owing to my misfortunes giving my mind a melancholy cast; but there is something even in the—

‘—Mighty tempest & the hoary waste Abrupt & deep stretch’d o’er the buried earth—’ which raises the mind to a serious sublimity, favorable to every thing great & noble.—There is scarcely any earthly object gives me more—I don’t know if I should call it pleasure, but something which exalts me,

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something which enraptures me—than to walk in the sheltered side of a wood or high plantation, in a cloudy, winter day, and hear a stormy wind howling among the trees & raving o’er the plain.—It is my best season for devotion;—my mind is rapt up in a kind of enthusiasm to Him who, in the pompous language of Scripture, ‘walks on the wings of the wind’.—In one of these seasons, just after a tract of misfortunes I composed the following SONG—(Tune McPherson’s Farewel). (1CPB 1783–5 8–10) If ‘Winter’ was written in the late winter of early 1784, the ‘tract of misfortunes’ included family bereavement; Burns’s father died on 13 February, worn out by his struggle against poverty. In responding positively to the severe beauty of winter (cf. ‘In…the hoary majesty of Winter; the poet feels a charm unknown to the rest of his species’, to Margaret Kennedy, autumn 1785 (Letter 20, Letters I 26–7)), Burns resembles earlier Scottish poets, including James Thomson, whose poem The Seasons he knew and admired. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) VII no. 14, and in McGibbon’s Collection of Scots Tunes (1768). Cf. no. 70 ‘Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong’.

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10 On Cessnock banks a lassie dwells Tune: The butcher boy

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On Cessnock banks a lassie dwells; Could I describe her shape and mien; Our lassies a’ she far excels; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een; She’s sweeter than the morning dawn, 5 When rising Phoebus first is seen; When dew-drops twinkle o’er the lawn; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. She’s stately, like yon youthful ash That grows the cowslips braes between 10 And drinks the stream with vigour fresh; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. She’s spotless, like the flow’ring thorn With flow’rs so white and leaves so green When purest in the dewy morn; 15 An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her looks are like the vernal May When ev’ning Phoebus shines serene, While birds rejoice on ev’ry spray; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. 20 Her hair is like the curling mist That climbs the mountain side at e’en, When flow’r-reviving rains are past; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her forehead’s like the show’ry bow 25 When gleaming sun-beams intervene And gild the distant mountain’s brow; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her cheeks are like yon crimson gem, The pride of all the flowery scene, 30 Just opening on its thorny stem;

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An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her teeth are like the nightly snow When pale the morning rises keen, While hid the murmuring streamlets flow; 35 An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her lips are like yon cherries ripe Which sunny walls from Boreas screen; They tempt the taste and charm the sight; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. 40 ***

Her breath is like the fragrant breeze That gently stirs the blossom’d bean, When Phoebus sinks behind the seas; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her voice is like the ev’ning thrush 45 That sings on Cessnock’s banks unseen, While his mate sits nestling in the bush; An’ she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. But it’s not her air, her form, her face, Though matching beauty’s fabled Queen; 50 ‘Tis the mind that shines in ev’ry grace, An’ chiefly in her rogueish een. Cromek, Reliques (1808); Kinsley First published by Cromek, ‘from the oral communication of a lady residing at Glasgow, whom the Bard in early life affectionately admired’ (Reliques (1808) 442). Burns probably wrote his ‘song of similes’, as he called it, about Alison Begbie, daughter of a Galston farmer, and servant in a household on the banks of the Cessnock near Lochlie, to whom he addressed a number of rather high-flown love letters. She may well have been the ‘belle-fille’ who jilted him ‘with peculiar circumstances of mortification’ in 1781–2 (Letter 125, Letters 1142). The air is taken from SMM no. 304 (1792).

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11 O why the deuce should I repine

O why the deuce should I repine, And be an ill foreboder; I’m twenty-three, and five feet nine, I’ll go and be a sodger. I gat some gear wi’ meikle care, 5 I held it weel thegither; But now its gane, and something mair, I’ll go and be a sodger. ‘Extempore’, Currie (1800) sodger soldier gear money, property Printed by Currie under the date April 1782 from a notebook Burns had bought for making ‘farming memorandums’. The song may refer to his misfortune in flax-dressing at Irvine in 1781–2, when his partner’s wife set fire to the shop in ‘drunken carelessness’ and ‘left me like a true Poet, not worth sixpence’ (Letter 125, Letters I 142). No tune is named.

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12 My father was a farmer upon the Carrickborder O Tune: The Weaver and his shuttle, O (Jockey’s gray breeks)

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My father was a farmer upon the Carrick border O And carefully he bred me, in decency & order O He bade me act a manly part, though I had ne’er a farthing O For without an honest manly heart, no man was worth regarding O. Then out into the world my course I did determine. O 5 Tho’ to be rich was not my wish, yet to be great was charming. O My talents were not the worst; nor yet my education: O Resolv’d was I, at least to try, to mend my situation. O In many a way, & vain essay, I courted fortune’s favor; O Some cause unseen, still stept between, and frustrate each endeavor; O 10

Some times by foes I was o’erpower’d; sometimes by friends forsaken; O And when my hope was at the top, I still was worst mistaken. O Then sore harass’d, and tir’d at last, with fortune’s vain delusion; O I dropt my schemes, like idle dreams; and came to this conclusion; O The past was bad, & the future hid; its good or ill untryed; O 15 But the present hour was in my pow’r, & so I would enjoy it, O No help, nor hope, nor view had I; nor person to befriend me; O So I must toil, & sweat & moil, & labor to sustain me, O To plough & sow, to reap & mow, my father bred me early, O For one, he said, to labor bred, was a match for fortune fairly, O 20 Thus all obscure, unknown, & poor, thro’ life I’m doom’d to wander, O Till down my weary bones I lay in everlasting slumber; O No view nor care, but shun whate’er might breed me pain or sorrow; O I live today as well’s I may, regardless of tomorrow, O But chearful still, I am as well as a Monarch in a palace; O 25 Tho’ fortune’s frown still hunts me down with all her wonted malice: O I make indeed my daily bread, but ne’er can make it further; O

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But as daily bread is all I heed, I do not much regard her. O When sometimes by my labor I earn a little money, O Some unforeseen misfortune comes generally upon me; O 30 Mischance, mistake, or by neglect, or my good-natur’d folly; O But come what will I’ve sworn it still, I’ll ne’er be melancholy, O All you who follow wealth & power with unremitting ardor, O The more in this you look for bliss, you leave your view the farther; O Had you the wealth Potosi boasts, or nations to adore you, O 35 A chearful honest-hearted clown I will prefer before you, O 1CPB 1783–5 Burns entered this wryly defiant autobiographical song in his first commonplace book in April 1784, with the comment: The following Song is a wild Rhapsody, miserably defficient in Versification, but as the sentiments are the genuine feelings of my heart, for that reason I have a particular pleasure in conning it over. (1CPB 1783–5 10–11) The song may well have been written as early as 1782. Line 10

Some cause unseen, still stept between, and frustrate each endeavor; O seems to allude to Burns’s unhappy venture in Irvine as a flax-dresser in 1781–2, which culminated in the loss of his stock through fire. Along with other experiences, this episode no doubt contributed to his determination to enjoy ‘the present hour’:

The past was bad, and the future hid; its good or ill untryed; O But the present hour was in my pow’r, and so I would enjoy it, O The poet’s father died in February 1784. Burns gives the tune in his commonplace book as ‘The weaver & his shuttle O’. In a later note on Scottish song (Edinburgh University, Laing MSS III 586), he writes about the tune Jockey’s gray breeks:

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Though this has certainly every evidence of being a Scotish air, yet there is a well-known tune and song in the North of Ireland, call’d ‘The weaver and his shuttle, O,’ which though sung much quicker, is, every note, the very tune.

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13 Altho’ my bed were in yon muir Tune: Galla Water

Altho’ my bed were in yon muir, Amang the heather, in my plaidie, Yet happy happy would I be Had I my dear Montgomerie’s Peggy.— When o’er the hill beat surly storms, 5 And winter nights were dark and rainy; I’d seek some dell, and in my arms I’d shelter dear Montgomerie’s Peggy.— Were I a Baron proud and high, And horse and servants waiting ready, 10 Then a’ ‘twad gie o’ joy to me, The sharin’t with Montgomerie’s Peggy.— 1CPB 1783–5

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muir moor plaidie cloak of tartan or chequered woollen cloth ‘twad it would Burns wrote in his commonplace book that this song was ‘done, something in imitation of the manner of a noble old Scottish Piece called McMillan’s Peggy, and sings to the tune of Galla water’. He continued: My Montgomerie’s Peggy was my Deity for six, or eight months. She had been bred, tho’ as the world says, without any just pretence for it, in a style of life rather elegant.—But as Vanbrugh says in one of his comedies, My ‘damnd star found me out’ there too, for though I began the affair, merely in a gaité de coeur, or to tell the truth, what would scarcely be believed, a vanity of showing my parts in Courtship, particularly my abilities at a Billet doux, which I always piqu’d myself upon, made me lay siege to her; and when, as I always do in my foolish gallantries, I had battered myself into a very warm affection for her, she told me, one day, in a flag of truce, that her fortress had been for some time before the rightful property of another; but with the greatest friendship and politeness, she offered me every alliance, except actual possession.—I found out afterwards that what she told me of a pre engagement was really true; but it cost some heart Achs to get rid of the affair. I have even tryed to imitate, in this extempore thing, that irregularity in the rhyme which, when judiciously done, has such a fine effect on the ear. (1CPB 1783–5 39) Burns’s sister, Mrs Begg, said that ‘Peggy’ was housekeeper to the Montgomeries of Coylfield: she and the poet ‘sat in the same church, and contracted an intimacy together; but she was engaged to another before ever they met’. Kinsley comments that in this song, probably written as early as 1782, ‘Burns is already showing his skill in the art of song, matching the lift of the air beautifully with the third, emphatic line of the stanza’ (Commentary 1015–16). The air Galla Water is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 28 and is SMM no. 125 (1788). Cf. no. 225 ‘Braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes’.

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14

There was three kings into the east Tune: Lull me beyond thee

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There was three kings into the east, Three kings both great and high; And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die. They took a plough, and plough’d him down, Put clods upon his head; And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn was dead. But the chearful Spring came kindly on, And show’rs began to fall; John Barleycorn got up again, And sore surpris’d them all. The sultry suns of Summer came, And he grew thick and strong, His head weel arm’d wi’ pointed spears, That no one should him wrong. The sober Autumn enter’d mild, When he grew wan and pale; His bending joints and drooping head Show’d he began to fail.

5

10

15

20

His colour sicken’d more and more, He faded into age; And then his enemies began To show their deadly rage. They’ve taen a weapon, long and sharp, And cut him by the knee; Then ty’d him fast upon a cart, Like a rogue for forgerie. They laid him down upon his back, And cudgell’d him full sore; They hung him up before the storm,

25

30

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And turn’d him o’er and o’er. They filled up a darksome pit With water to the brim, They heaved in John Barleycorn, There let him sink or swim.

35

***

They laid him out upon the floor, To work him farther woe, And still, as signs of life appear’d, They toss’d him to and fro.

40

They wasted, o’er a scorching flame, The marrow of his bones; But a Miller us’d him worst of all, For he crush’d him between two stones. And they hae taen his very heart’s blood, And drank it round and round; And still the more and more they drank, Their joy did more abound. John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise, For if you do but taste his blood, ’Twill make your courage rise. ’Twill make a man forget his woe; ’Twill heighten all his joy: ’Twill make the widow’s heart to sing, Tho’ the tear were in her eye.

45

50

55

Then let us toast John Barleycorn, Each man a glass in hand; And may his great prosperity Ne’er fail in old Scotland! 60 Poems (1787)

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An original song by Burns, incorporating traditional verses and phrases. ‘John Barleycorn’ is included in the first commonplace book in June 1785, with this note: John Barleycorn.—A Song, to its own Tune. I once heard the old song, that goes by this name, sung; and being very fond of it, and remembering only two or three verses of it viz. the 1st, 2nd and 3d, with some scraps which I have interwoven here and there in the following piece. (ICPB 1783–5 22) The myth of the corn spirit is widespread (cf. J.G.Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890–1915) V). The earliest Scottish poem to describe the processing of barley from harvesting to brewing is in the Bannatyne Manuscript of 1568. Burns was inspired by oral tradition, but may possibly also have known a popular allegory of drink in a chapbook of 1781, The whole Trial and Indictment of Sir John Barleycorn, Knt., A Person of noble Birth and Extraction… Being accused of several Misdemeanours… killing some, wounding others, and bringing Thousands to Beggary. The English north-country air Lull me beyond thee occurs in Playford’s Dancing Master (1670) 148. An alternative setting is Cold and Raw, also known as Stingo, or the Oyl of Barley.

Songs and notes

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15 No Churchman am I for to rail and to write Tune: Prepare, my dear Brethren

Burns was made a Master in the Tarbolton Lodge of Freemasons on 1 October 1781. The last stanza was specially written for the Masons. Allusions to the parliamentary inquiry into Hastings’s administration in India, to Fox’s Indian bills, and to Pitt as Chancellor, suggest that Burns wrote this drinking song in the winter of 1783–4. ‘The Bard…that wore the black gown’ (l. 22) is Edward Young (1683–1765). The tune was an established favourite among Freemasons. In Watts’s Musical Miscellany (1730) III 72, it is entitled Freemasons’ health, while in Aird’s Airs (1782) I no. 175, it is called The freemasons’ march. It was well known in the West of Scotland, where children in the streets learned to sing,

Hey the merry Masons, and ho the merry Masons Hey the merry Masons goes marching along. No Churchman am I for to rail and to write, No statesman nor soldier to plot or to fight,

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No sly man of business contriving a snare, For a big-belly’d bottle’s the whole of my care. The Peer I don’t envy I give him his bow; I scorn not the peasant tho’ ever so low; But a club of good fellows like those that are here And a bottle like this, are my glory and care.

5

Here passes the Squire on his brother—his horse; There Centum per Centum, the Cit with his purse; 10 But see you the Crown how it waves in the air, There a big belly’d bottle still eases my care. The wife of my bosom, alas! she did die, For sweet consolation to church I did fly; I found that old Solomon proved it fair, That a big belly’d bottle’s a cure for all care.

15

I once was persuaded a venture to make, A letter inform’d me that all was to wreck; But the pursy old landlord just waddled up stairs, With a glorious bottle that ended my cares. 20 ‘Life’s cares they are comforts’*—a maxim laid down By the Bard, what d’ye call him, that wore the black gown; And faith I agree with th’old prig to a hair; For a big-belly’d bottle’s a heav’n of care. [A stanza added in a Mason Lodge] Then fill up a bumper and make it o’erflow, 25 And honours Masonic prepare for to throw; May every true brother of th’ Compass and Square Have a big belly’d bottle when harass’d with care. SMM no. 587 (1803) *Young’s ‘Night Thoughts’

Cit citizen, townsman

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16 The sun he is sunk in the west Tune: Go from my window, love, do

The Stair Manuscript is a collection made in the autumn of 1786, but this song, which Burns headed with the words ‘In the character of a ruined Farmer’, may date from 1783– 4. At that time a writ of sequestration was made against his father, William Burnes, who died in 1784. The period was one of hardship for many tenant farmers throughout western Scotland. The air is taken from SMM no. 581 (1803).

The sun he is sunk in the west, All creatures retirèd to rest, While here I sit, all sore beset With sorrow, grief, and woe; And it’s O, fickle Fortune, O! 5 The prosperous man is asleep, Nor hears how the whirlwinds sweep; But Misery and I must watch The surly tempest blow: And it’s O, fickle, etc. 10

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There lies the dear Partner of my breast; Her cares for a moment at rest: Must I see thee, my youthful pride, Thus brought so very low! And it’s O, fickle, etc. 15 There lie my sweet babies in her arms; No anxious fear their little hearts alarms; But for their sake my heart does ache, With many a bitter throe: And it’s O, fickle, etc. 20 I once was by Fortune carest; I once could relieve the distrest: Now life’s poor support, hardly earn’d, My fate will scarce bestow: And it’s O, fickle, etc. 25 No comfort, no comfort I have! How welcome to me were the grave! But then my wife and children dear— O, whither would they go! And it’s O, fickle, etc. 30 O whither, O whither shall I turn! All friendless, forsaken, forlorn! For in this world, Rest or Peace, I never more shall know! And it’s O, fickle Fortune, O! 35 Burns Cottage Collection, Alloway; Stair MS

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17 O Mary, at thy window be Tune: Duncan Davison

Sending this song to George Thomson on 20 March 1792, to be set to Duncan Davison, Burns wrote in a mood of self-deprecation, the Song prefixed is one of my juvenile works.—I leave it among your hands.—I do not think it very remarkable, either for its merits, or demerits.—It is impossible, at least I feel it in my stinted powers, to be always original, entertaining & witty. (Letter 540, Letters II 186) Thomson included the song in 1818. By that time it had appeared in Currie’s edition of Burns’s Works (where the tune named is Bide ye yet), and was already popular. Dick rightly describes ‘Mary Morison’ as an ‘exquisite lyric’. After commenting on the difficulty of identifying the heroine of the song, ‘Morison is a not uncommon name, and many Morisons are Marys’, Kinsley writes, as a song, it is a notable early attempt to marry words to music. The air breaks conventionally at the end of the first part; but over it Burns

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constructs a stanza of eight phrases, crossing and binding the two parts together with the rhyme repeating in the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh lines to confirm the unity of the stanza and the air. The song opens sedately, on a low note; but at the fifth line, where the reel breaks and lifts, conventional address is intensified into passionate declaration, ‘expressing’ the discovered character of the tune. (Commentary 1022) The air Duncan Davison had appeared in McGlashan’s Strathspey Reels (1780) and in other reel collections. Cf. 76 ‘There was a lass, they ca’d her Meg’.

O Mary, at thy window be, It is the wish’d, the trysted hour! Those smiles and glances let me see, That make the miser’s treasure poor. How blithely wad I bide the stoure, 5 A weary slave frae sun to sun; Could I the rich reward secure, The lovely Mary Morison. Yestreen when to the trembling string The dance gaed through the lighted ha’, 10 To thee my fancy took its wing, I sat, but neither heard, nor saw: Though this was fair, and that was braw, And yon the toast of a’ the town, I sigh’d, and said amang them a’, 15 ‘Ye are na Mary Morison’. O Mary, canst thou wreck his peace, Wha for thy sake wad gladly die! Or canst thou break that heart of his, Whase only faut is loving thee! 20 If love for love thou wilt na gie, At least be pity to me shown; A thought ungentle canna be The thought o’ Mary Morison. Currie (1800); SC no. 219 (1818)

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trysted appointed bide the stoure put up with the struggle yestreen yesterday evening faut fault

18 When Guilford good our Pilot stood Tune: The black watch

When Guilford good our Pilot stood, An’ did our hellim thraw, man, Ae night, at tea, began a plea, Within America, man: Then up they gat the maskin-pat, And in the sea did jaw, man; An’ did nae less, in full Congress, Than quite refuse our law, man.

5

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Then thro’ the lakes Montgomery takes, I wat he was na slaw, man; 10 Down Lowrie’s burn he took a turn, And C-rl-t-n did ca’, man: But yet, whatreck, he, at Quebec, Montgomery-like did fa’, man, Wi’ sword in hand, before his band, 15 Amang his en’mies a’, man. Poor Tammy G-ge within a cage Was kept at Boston-ha’, man; Till Willie H—e took o’er the knowe For Philadelphia, man: Wi’ sword an’ gun he thought a sin Guid Christian bluid to draw, man; But at New-York, wi’ knife an’ fork, Sir Loin he hacked sma’, man. B-rg—ne gaed up, like spur an’ whip, Till Fraser brave did fa’, man; Then lost his way, ae misty day, In Saratoga shaw, man. C-rnw-ll-s fought as lang’s he dought, An’ did the Buckskins claw, man; But Cl-nt-n’s glaive frae rust to save He hung it to the wa’, man.

20

25

30

Then M-nt-gue, an’ Guilford too, Began to fear a fa’, man; And S-ckv-lle doure, wha stood the stoure, 35 The German Chief to thraw, man: For Paddy B-rke, like ony Turk, Nae mercy had at a’, man; An’ Charlie F-x threw by the box, An’ lows’d his tinkler jaw, man. 40 Then R-ck-ngh-m took up the game; Till Death did on him ca’, man;

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When Sh-lb-rne meek held up his cheek, Conform to Gospel law, man: Saint Stephen’s boys, wi’ jarring noise, 45 They did his measures thraw, man, For N-rth an’ F-x united stocks, An’ bore him to the wa’, man. Then Clubs an’ Hearts were Charlie’s cartes, He swept the stakes awa’, man, 50 Till the Diamond’s Ace, of Indian race, Led him a sair faux-pas, man: The Saxon lads, wi’ loud placads, On Chatham’s Boy did ca’, man; An’ Scotland drew her pipe an’ blew, 55 ‘Up, Willie, waur them a’, man!’ ***

Behind the throne then Gr-nv-lle’s gone, A secret word or twa, man; While slee D-nd-s arous’d the class Be-north the Roman wa’, man: 60 An’ Chatham’s wraith, in heav’nly graith, (Inspired Bardies saw, man!) Wi’ kindling eyes cry’d, ‘Willie, rise! ‘Would I hae fear’d them a’, man!’ But, word an’ blow, N-rth, F-x, and Co. 65 Gowff’d Willie like a ba’, man, Till Suthron raise, an’ coost their claise Behind him in a raw, man: An’ Caledon threw by the drone, An’ did her whittle draw, man; 70 An’ swoor fu’ rude, thro’ dirt an’ blood, To mak it guid in law, man. Poems (1787) hellim tiller thraw turn

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maskin-pat pot for infusing (masking) tea jaw pour wat know slaw slow whatreck nevertheless knowe mound shaw ‘small wood in a hollow place’ (Burns) dought dared buckskins Americans claw thrash glaive sword doure stubborn stoure tumult thraw frustrate lows’d his tinkler jaw began to chatter in tinker fashion cartes cards placads summons, proclamations waur get the better of slee sly, cunning wraith spirit, ghost graith dress gowff’d struck Suthron Englishmen coost their claise cast off their clothes drone supplementary pipe (of bagpipe) whittle knife swoor swore Probably written in 1784, this ‘political ballad’ gives a brief satirical account of the American war and other events leading up to the election in the spring of that year, beginning with the Boston Tea Party. Stanzas 5–9 describe political reactions in Britain to the unsuccessful course of the war. Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in December 1783, after the fall of the Coalition ministry of North and Fox. 1

Guilford: Lord North (1732–92), son of the first Earl of Guilford. He held office as George III’s chief minister during the American war.

3–8 The ‘Boston Tea Party’ took place on 16 December 1773, when the cargoes of three tea ships were thrown into Boston harbour by angry colonists. 7

Congress The ‘continental congresses’ of the revolutionary colonies, 1774–6.

9– 16

Then thro’ the lakes The successful American campaign of 1775–6 directed by Washington.

17– Poor Tammy G-ge General Gage (1721–88), Governor of Massachusetts, succeeded as 20 Commander-in-chief by Sir William Howe. 25– B-rg—ne General Burgoyne had to surrender to General Gates and a colonists’ army at 32 Saratoga in 1777. General Cornwallis fought with distinction for several years before

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surrendering at Yorktown in 1781. Clinton had left New York with reinforcements for him, but turned back when he heard of the British surrender. 37

Paddy B-rke Edmund Burke (1729–97), a steady critic of the government’s American policy.

39

Charlie F-x Charles James Fox (1749–1806) led the opposition to North, and became Secretary of State in Rockingham’s ministry in 1782.

41– The Marquis of Rockingham was Prime Minister for a brief period in 1782. After his death, 8 the king sent for the Earl of Shelburne, but he was defeated by a coalition led by Fox and North in February 1783. 51– the Diamond’s Ace Fox’s East India Bill, supported by Burke, was passed by the Commons 6 in December 1783. The Lords threw it out, however; and William Pitt (1759–1806), son of the Earl of Chatham, took office as Prime Minister. 59– slee D-nd-s Henry Dundas (1742–1811), who had considerable political influence in 60 Scotland. 61

Chatham’s wraith Pitt the elder died in 1778. ‘Willie, rise’ echoes the chorus of a Jacobite song on the indecisive battle of Sheriffmuir (1715). Cf. no. 212 ‘Up and warn a’, Willie’.

65– When the India Bill in the end took away Fox’s majority, Parliament was dissolved in March 72 1784, and Pitt went to the country.

Burns was advised against including ‘When Guilford good’ in the Kilmarnock edition. He wrote to Henry Erskine, Dean of Faculty, in December 1786, I showed the inclosed political ballad to my lord Glencairn [his principal patron in Edinburgh], to have his opinion whether I should publish it; as I suspect my political tenets, such as they are, may be rather heretical in the opinion of some of my best Friends.—I have a few first principles in Religion and Politics, which, I believe, I would not easily part with; but for all the etiquette of, by whom, in what manner, &c. I would not have a dissocial word about it with any one of God’s creatures; particularly an honored Patron, or a respected Friend.—His Lordship seems to think the piece may appear in print, but desired me to send you a copy for your suffrage. (Letter 70, Letters I 77) Erskine approved, and ‘When Guilford good our Pilot stood’ duly appeared in the Edinburgh edition of Poems (1787). It must have appealed to Burns that the Gaelic air he chose, M. freicedan or The black watch, had appeared in McGlashan’s Strathspey Reels (1780) under the title The Earl of Glencairn’s.

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19 In Tarbolton, ye ken, there are proper youngmen

In Tarbolton, ye ken, there are proper young men, And proper young lasses and a’, man: But ken ye the Ronalds that live in the Bennals, They carry the gree frae them a’, man. Their father’s a laird, and weel he can spare’t, 5 Braid money to tocher them a’, man, To proper young men, he’ll clink in the hand Gowd guineas a hunder or twa, man. There’s ane they ca’ Jean, I’ll warrant ye’ve seen As bonie a lass or as braw, man, 10 But for sense and guid taste she’ll vie wi’ the best, And a conduct that beautifies a’, man. The charms o’ the min’, the langer they shine, The mair admiration they draw, man; While peaches and cherries, and roses and lilies, 15 They fade and they wither awa, man. If ye be for Miss Jean, tak this frae a frien’, A hint o’ a rival or twa, man,

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The Laird o’ Blackbyre wad gang through the fire, If that wad entice her awa, man. 20 The Laird o’ Braehead has been on his speed, For mair than a towmond or twa, man; The Laird o’ the Ford will straught on a board, If he canna get her at a’, man. Then Anna comes in, the pride o’ her kin, 25 The boast of our bachelors a’, man: Sae sonsy and sweet, sae fully complete, She steals our affections awa, man. If I should detail the pick and the wale O’ lasses that live here awa, man, 30 The faut wad be mine, if she didna shine The sweetest and best o’ them a’, man. I lo’e her mysel, but darena weel tell, My poverty keeps me in awe, man, For making o’ rhymes, and working at times, 35 Does little or naething at a’, man. Yet I wadna choose to let her refuse, Nor hae’t in her power to say na, man, For though I be poor, unnoticed, obscure, My stomach’s as proud as them a’, man. 40 ***

Though I canna ride in weel-booted pride, And flee o’er the hills like a craw, man, I can haud up my head wi’ the best o’ the breed, Though fluttering ever so braw, man. My coat and my vest, they are Scotch o’ the best, 45 O’ pairs o’ guid breeks I hae twa, man: And stockings and pumps to put on my stumps, And ne’er a wrang steek in them a’, man.

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My sarks they are few, but five o’ them new, Twal’-hundred, as white as the snaw, man, 50 A ten-shillings hat, a Holland cravat; There are no mony poets sae braw, man. I never had freens weel stockit in means, To leave me a hundred or twa, man, Nae weel-tocher’d aunts, to wait on their drants 55 And wish them in hell for it a’, man. I never was cannie for hoarding o’ money, Or claughtin’t together at a’, man, I’ve little to spend and naething to lend, But devil a shilling I awe, man. 60 The Life and Works of Robert Burns, ed. Robert Chambers (1851) gree prize laird landowner braid money pieces of gold tocher furnish with a dowry clink jingle gowd gold ye you towmond twelve-month, year straught straight canna cannot sonsy good-natured wale choice faut fault didna did not darena dare not wadna would not craw crow haud hold breeks trousers wrang wrong steek stitch sarks shirts twal’-hundred woven in a reel of 1200 divisions Holland fine linen freens friends stockit stocked drants sulks

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cannie careful claughtin’t gathering it awe owe In the 1780s William Ronald, with his wife and daughters, Jean and Anna, occupied the Bennals, a 200-acre farm a few miles from Lochlie, where William Burnes farmed, in Tarbolton parish. Gilbert Burns is said to have wooed and been rejected by Jean, while Robert admired Anna, who may be glancingly referred to in a letter of September 1784, We talk of air & manner, of beauty & wit, and lord knows what unmeaning nonsense; but—there—is solid charms for you—Who would not be in raptures with a woman that will make him £300 richer?—And then to have a woman to lye with when one pleases, without running any risk of the cursed expence of bastards and all the other concomitants of that species of Smuggling. (Letter 18, Letters I 24) When Ronald went bankrupt in 1789, Burns wrote, You will easily guess that from his insolent vanity in his sunshine of life, he will now feel a little retaliation from those who thought themselves eclipsed by him, for, poor fellow! I do not think he every intentionally injured any one. (Letter 372, Letters I 452) The air to which Burns set his words has not been identified.

Songs and notes

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20 In Mauchline there dwells six proper young Belles Tune: Bonie Dundee

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In Mauchline there dwells six proper young Belles, The pride of the place and its neighbourhood a’, Their carriage and dress a stranger would guess, In Lon’on or Paris they’d gotten it a’: Miss Miller is fine, Miss Murkland’s divine, 5 Miss Smith she has wit and Miss Betty is braw; There’s beauty and fortune to get wi’ Miss Morton, But ARMOUR’S the jewel for me o’ them a’. Currie (1800); Glenriddell MS Burns added a note to this song in the Glenriddell manuscript, ‘Miss Armour is now known by the designation of Mrs Burns’. He met Jean Armour, daughter of a Mauchline mason, late in 1784. She bore him twins on 3 September 1786, and again on 3 March 1788; and was acknowledged as his wife in April that year. The other Mauchline belles were Helen Miller, who married Burns’s surgeon friend John Mackenzie, and her sister ‘Miss Betty’, who married a Mauchline merchant named Templeton; Jean Markland, who married Burns’s friend James Findlay, excise officer at Tarbolton; Jean Smith, later Mrs Candlish, sister of the poet’s friend James; and Christina Morton, who married Robert Paterson of Mauchline in 1788. The air Bonie Dundee was to be used for no. 50 ‘O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?’.

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21 O, leave novels, ye Mauchline belles Tune: Ye Mauchline belles

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O, leave novels, ye Mauchline belles, Ye’re safer at your spinning wheel; Such witching books, are baited hooks For rakish rooks like Rob Mossgiel. Your fine Tom Jones and Grandisons 5 They make your youthful fancies reel; They heat your brains, and fire your veins, And then you’re prey for Rob Mossgiel. Beware a tongue that’s smoothly hung; A heart that warmly seems to feel; 10 That feelin heart but acks a part, ‘Tis rakish art in Rob Mossgiel. The frank address, the soft caress, Are worse than poisoned darts of steel, The frank address, and politesse, 15 Are all finesse in Rob Mossgiel. SMM no. 573 (1803) acks acts Probably written in 1784–5, at about the time when Burns took up with Jean Armour, daughter of a stonemason in Mauchline. Burns farmed Mossgiel, a mile or so from Mauchline. According to the usual Scottish practice of naming a farmer after his farm, he was known locally as Rob Mossgiel. He quickly gained a reputation in Mauchline as a lover of the lasses, and it is on this idea, along with the eighteenth-century belief that novels are ‘dangerous’ reading, that he plays in ‘O leave novels, ye Mauchline belles’. Fielding’s Tom Jones was published in 1749; Sir Charles Grandison by Richardson appeared in seven volumes in 1753–4. Some people alleged that these novels, both of which were popular with the public, encouraged loose living. The air in SMM is untitled.

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22 When first I came to Stewart Kyle Tune: I had a horse, and I had nae mair

When first I came to Stewart Kyle My mind it was nae steady, Where e’er I gaed, where e’er I rade,

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A Mistress still I had ay: But when I came roun’ by Mauchlin town, 5 Not dreadin’ any body, My heart was caught before I thought And by a Mauchlin Lady. 1CPB 1783–5 37 A lighthearted song commemorating Burns’s falling in love with Jean Armour. The Burns family came to Lochlie, in Stewart Kyle, in 1777. Burns and Jean Armour met early in 1784. The commonplace book entry is dated August [1785], ‘a month’, Burns told John Moore, ‘which is always a carnival in my bosom’.

23 Green grow the rashes, O Tune: Green grow the rashes, O

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CHORUS Green grow the rashes, O; Green grow the rashes, O; The sweetest hours that e’er I spend, Are spent amang the lasses, O. There’s nought but care on ev’ry han’, 5 In ev’ry hour that passes, O: What signifies the life o’ man, An’ ‘twere na for the lasses, O Green grow, etc. The warly race may riches chase, An’ riches still may fly them, O; 10 An’ tho’ at last they catch them fast, Their hearts can ne’er enjoy them, O. Green grow, etc. But gie me a canny hour at e’en, My arms about my Dearie, O; An’ warly cares, an’ warly men, 15 May a’ gae tapsalteerie, O! Green grow, etc. For you sae douse, ye sneer at this, Ye’re nought but senseless asses, O: The wisest Man the warl’ saw, He dearly lov’d the lasses, O. 20 Green grow, etc. Auld Nature swears, the lovely Dears Her noblest work she classes, O: Her prentice han’ she try’d on man, An’ then she made the lasses, O. Green grow, etc. Poems (1787); SMM no. 77 (1787)

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han’ hand an’ ‘twere na if it were not warly worldly canny favourable, lucky a’ gae tapsalteerie all go topsy-turvy douse sedate The wisest Man Solomon All but the last verse (which was written later) of this famous song is in the first commonplace book, under the date August 1784. Burns had observed in April that ‘the whole species of young men may be naturally enough divided into two grand Classes, which I shall call the Grave, and the Merry’: The Grave, I shall cast into the usual division of those who are goaded on, by the love of money; and those whose darling wish, is, to make a figure in the world.—The Merry, are the men of Pleasure, of all denominations; the jovial lads who have too much fire & spirit to have any settled rule of action; but without much deliberation, follow the strong impulses of nature: the thoughtless, the careless, the indolent; and in particular He, who, with a happy sweetness of natural temper, and a cheerful vacancy of thought, steals through life, generally indeed, in poverty & obscurity; but poverty & obscurity are only evils to him, who can sit gravely down, and make a repining comparison between his own situation and that of others; and lastly to grace the quorum, such are, generally, the men whose heads are capable of all the towerings of Genius, and whose hearts are warmed with the delicacy of Feeling. In August, he admitted wryly, The foregoing was to have been an elaborate dissertation on the various species of men; but as I cannot please myself in the arrangement of my ideas, I must wait till farther experience, & nicer observation throw more light on the subject. and then continued, In the mean time I shall set down the following fragment which, as it is the genuine language of my heart, will enable any body to determine which of the Classes I belong to—

Green grow the rashes—O…(1CPB 1783–5 15–16) The text of the completed song was included in the Edinburgh edition of Poems (1787). In volume 1 of SMM, published later in the same year, ‘Green grow the Rashes’ (no. 77) has the distinction of being the earliest of Burns’s songs to be printed with music.

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An additional stanza is to be found among the MSS at Lady Stair’s House, Edinburgh:

Frae Man’s ain side God made his wark That a’ the lave surpasses O, The Man but lo’es his ain heart’s bluid Wha dearly lo’es the lasses O. The Complaynt of Scotland (1549) mentions a song with the title ‘Cou thous me the raschyes grene’, but the earliest known version of the air Burns used is in Straloch’s MS (1627) as ‘A dance: Green grow the rashes’. It was later known as ‘I kist her while she blusht’, and was often included in tune books in the second half of the eighteenth century. Burns was familiar with a song to this tune which included a verse he borrowed for his own song ‘My love she’s but a lassie yet’:

We’re a’ dry wi’ drinking o’t, We’re a’ dry wi’ drinking o’t: The minister kisst the fiddler’s wife, And could na preach for thinkin on’t.

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24 My girl she’s airy, she’s buxom and gay Tune: Black Joke

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My girl she’s airy, she’s buxom and gay, Her breath is as sweet as the blossoms in May; A touch of her lips it ravishes quite; She’s always good natur’d, good humor’d and free; She dances, she glances, she smiles with a glee; Her eyes are the lightenings of joy and delight; 5 Her slender neck, her handsome waist, Her hair well buckl’d, her stays well lac’d, Her taper white leg, with an et, and a c, For her a, b, e, d, and her c, u, n, t, 10 And Oh, for the joys of a long winter night!!! MMC One of Burns’s earliest recorded bawdy songs, written during his affair with Betty Paton, and entered in his commonplace book in September 1784. He sent a copy with some revisions in a letter from Mauchline on 29 July 1787 welcoming his friend Robert Ainslie to ‘the venerable Society, of FATHERS’. In this letter he refers to his own increasing family of illegitimate children: ‘I shall get a farm, and keep them all about my hand, and breed them in the fear of the Lord and an oakstick, and I shall be the happiest man upon earth’. He quotes a snatch of traditional song, and adds ‘the following random verses to the tune of Black Joke’. (Letters I 131) Source of music: adapted from Bremner’s Collection of Scots Tunes (1759). Music text © David Johnson, 1993.

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25 Ye jovial boys who love the joys Tune: Clout the caudron

Ye jovial boys who love the joys, The blissful joys of Lovers, Yet dare avow with dauntless brow, When the bony lass discovers; I pray draw near, and lend an ear, 5 And welcome in a Frater, For I’ve lately been on quarantine, A proven Fornicator. Before the Congregation wide, I pass’d the muster fairly,

10

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My handsome Betsy by my side, We gat our ditty rarely; But my downcast eye did chance to spy What made my lips to water, These limbs so clean where I between Commenc’d a Fornicator. With rueful face and signs of grace I pay’d the buttock-hire, But the night was dark and thro’ the park I could not but convoy her; A parting kiss, I could not less, My vows began to scatter, My Betsy fell—lal de dal lal lal, I am a Fornicator. But for her sake this vow I make, And solemnly I swear it, That while I own a single crown She’s welcome for to share it; And my roguish boy his Mother’s joy And the darling of his Pater, For him I boast my pains and cost, Although a Fornicator.

15

20

25

30

Ye wenching blades whose hireling jades Have tipt you off blue-joram, I tell ye plain, I do disdain 35 To rank you in the Quorum; But a bony lass upon the grass To teach her esse Mater, And no reward but fond regard, O that’s a Fornicator. 40 Your warlike Kings and Heros bold, Great Captains and Commanders; Your mighty Caesars fam’d of old, And conquering Alexanders; In fields they fought and laurels bought, 45

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And bulwarks strong did batter, But still they grac’d our noble list, And ranked Fornicator!!! MMC gat got convoy escort blue-joram pox What stands out from ‘The Fornicator’ is Burns’s note of sexual defiance, directed principally at the church authorities whose discipline he had had to undergo. Kinsley comments: ‘This song is thought to celebrate Burns’s affair with Elizabeth Paton. The issue was, however, a daughter Elizabeth; in both the manuscript of The Fornicator and the version in MMC, it is a son (ll. 29–32). The variants suggest at least two states of the poem…’ (Commentary 1068–9). The air Clout the caudron is used for the tinker’s song in Love and Liberty, 36 ‘My bonie lass, I work in brass’.

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26 When chill November’s surly blast Tune: Peggy Bawn

When chill November’s surly blast Made fields and forests bare, One ev’ning, as I wand’red forth, Along the banks of Aire, I spy’d a man, whose agèd step 5 Seem’d weary, worn with care; His face was furrow’d o’er with years, And hoary was his hair. Young stranger, whither wand’rest thou? Began the rev’rend Sage; 10 Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain,

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Or youthful Pleasure’s rage? Or haply, prest with cares and woes, Too soon thou hast began, To wander forth, with me, to mourn 15 The miseries of Man. The Sun that overhangs yon moors, Out-spreading far and wide, Where hundreds labour to support A haughty lordling’s pride; 20 I’ve seen yon weary winter-sun Twice forty times return; And ev’ry time has added proofs, That Man was made to mourn. O Man! while in thy early years, 25 How prodigal of time! Misspending all thy precious hours, Thy glorious, youthful prime! Alternate Follies take the sway; Licentious Passions burn; 30 Which tenfold force gives Nature’s law, That Man was made to mourn. Look not alone on youthful Prime, Or Manhood’s active might; Man then is useful to his kind, 35 Supported is his right: But see him on the edge of life, With Cares and Sorrows worn, Then Age and Want, Oh! ill-match’d pair! Show Man was made to mourn. 40 A few seem favourites of Fate, In Pleasure’s lap carest; Yet, think not all the Rich and Great, Are likewise truly blest. But Oh! what crouds in ev’ry land, 45 All wretched and forlorn,

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Thro’ weary life this lesson learn, That Man was made to mourn! Many and sharp the num’rous Ills Inwoven with our frame! 50 More pointed still we make ourselves, Regret, Remorse and Shame! And Man, whose heav’n-erected face, The smiles of love adorn, Man’s inhumanity to Man 55 Makes countless thousands mourn! See, yonder poor, o’er labour’d wight, So abject, mean and vile, Who begs a brother of the earth To give him leave to toil; 60 And see his lordly fellow-worm, The poor petition spurn, Unmindful, tho’ a weeping wife, And helpless offspring mourn. ***

If I’m design’d yon lordling’s slave, 65 By Nature’s law design’d, Why was an independent wish E’er planted in my mind? If not, why am I subject to His cruelty, or scorn? 70 Or why has Man the will and pow’r To make his fellow mourn? Yet, let not this too much, my Son, Disturb thy youthful breast: This partial view of human-kind 75 Is surely not the last! The poor, oppressed, honest man Had never, sure, been born, Had there not been some recompence

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To comfort those that mourn! 80 O Death! the poor man’s dearest friend, The kindest and the best! Welcome the hour, my agèd limbs Are laid with thee at rest! The Great, the Wealthy fear thy blow, 85 From pomp and pleasure torn; But Oh! a blest relief for those That weary-laden mourn! Poems (1786) Entered in the poet’s first commonplace book in August 1785 as ‘A Song—Tune Peggy Bawn’, and included in the Kilmarnock and subsequent editions of Poems, A letter to Mrs Dunlop of 16 August 1788 shows how strongly Burns felt on this subject: Man is by no means a happy creature.—I do not speak of the Selected Few, favored by partial Heaven… I speak of the neglected Many, whose nerves, whose sinews, whose days, whose thoughts…are sacrificed and sold to those few bloated Minions of Heaven!—If I thought you had never seen it, I would transcribe for you a stanza of an old Scots Ballad, called, ‘The life and age of Man’… I had an old Grand uncle with whom my Mother lived a while in her girlish years…long blind ere he died…his most voluptuous enjoyment was to sit down & cry while my Mother would sing the simple old song. (Letter 264, Letters I 306–7) Burns drew on his knowledge of the seventeenth-century ballad ‘The life and ages of Man’ when writing his dirge. The poet’s brother Gilbert comments that ‘Burns could not well conceive a more mortifying picture of human life, than a man seeking work. In casting about in his mind how this sentiment might be brought forward, the elegy Man was made to Mourn, was composed’ (Currie, 2nd ed (1801) III 384). The Irish air Peggy Bawn is included in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753) V31, and in SMM no. 509 (1803).

Songs and notes

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27 Young Peggy blooms our boniest lass Tune: Loch Eroch Side

Young Peggy blooms our boniest lass, Her blush is like the morning, The rosy dawn, the springing grass, With early gems adorning; Her eyes outshine the radiant beams 5 That gild the passing shower, And glitter o’er the chrystal streams, And chear each fresh’ning flower. Her lips more than the cherries bright, A richer die has grac’d them, 10 They charm th’admiring gazer’s sight And sweetly tempt to taste them: Her smile is as the ev’ning mild, When feath’red pairs are courting,

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And little lambkins wanton wild, 15 In playful bands disporting. Were Fortune lovely Peggy’s foe, Such sweetness would relent her, As blooming spring unbends the brow Of surly, savage winter. 20 Detraction’s eye no aim can gain Her winning pow’rs to lessen; And fretful envy grins in vain, The poison’d tooth to fasten. Ye Pow’rs of Honor, Love and Truth, 25 From ev’ry ill defend her; Inspire the highly favor’d Youth The Destinies intend her; Still fan the sweet connubial flame, Responsive in each bosom; 30 And bless the dear parental name With many a filial blossom. SMM no. 78 (1787) This song was Burns’s first contribution to the SMM. Margaret Kennedy (1766–95) was the daughter of Robert Kennedy of Daljarrock, factor to the Earl of Cassilis and brotherin-law to Gavin Hamilton. Burns met her at Gavin Hamilton’s house in Mauchline in 1785. In October 1785 he sent her this song, explaining I have, in these verses, attempted some faint sketches of your PORTRAIT in the unembellished simple manner of descriptive TRUTH.—Flattery, I leave to your LOVERS…. Poets, Madam, of all Mankind, feel most forcibly the powers of BEAUTY; as if they are really Poets of Nature’s making, their feelings must be finer, and their taste more delicate than most of the world.—In the Chearful bloom of Spring, or the pensive mildness of Autumn; the Grandeur of Summer, or the hoary majesty of Winter; the Poet feels a charm unknown to the rest of his Species: even the sight of a fine flower, or the company of a fine Woman, (by far the finest part of God’s works below) has sensations for the Poetic heart that the HERD of Man are strangers to.—On this last account, Madam, I am as in many other things, indebted to Mr Hamilton’s kindness in introducing me to you…. (Letter 20, Letters I 26–7)

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In March 1787, when proof-reading for the Edinburgh Poems was at an advanced stage, this song and no. 39, ‘Twas ev’n, the dewy fields were green’, were tried out on an Edinburgh ‘jury of Literati’. Burns explained to Gavin Hamilton that both were rejected, being ‘found defamatory libels against the fastidious Powers of Poesy and Taste; and the Author forbid to print them under pain of forfeiture of character’. He added, ‘I cannot help almost shedding a tear to the memory of two Songs that had cost me some pains, and that I valued a good deal, but I must submit’. (Letter 88, Letters I 98) In 1794 Margaret Kennedy bore a daughter to Captain Andrew McDoual. She died while an action for declaration of marriage or damages for seduction was before the courts. £3000 was awarded for maintenance of the child. The air, Loch Eroch Side, dating from 1700 or earlier, is included in McGlashan’s Reels (1786) and Aird’s Airs (1782) III.

Songs and notes

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28 The Catrine woods were yellow seen Music by Allan Masterton

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The Catrine woods were yellow seen, The flowers decay’d on Catrine lea, Nae lav’rock sang on hillock green, But Nature sicken’d on the e’e. Thro’ faded groves Maria sang, 5 Hersel’ in beauty’s bloom the while; And ay the wild-wood echoes rang, ‘Fareweel the braes o’ Ballochmyle!’ Low in your wintry beds, ye flowers, Again ye’ll flourish fresh and fair; 10 Ye birdies dumb, in with’ring bowers,

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Again ye’ll charm the vocal air. But here alas! for me nae mair Shall birdie charm, or floweret smile; Fareweel the bonnie banks of Ayr, 15 Fareweel, fareweel! sweet Ballochmyle! SMM no. 276 (1790) lav’rock lark Burns comments, This air is the composition of my friend Allan Masterton, in Edinr. I composed the verses on the amiable and excellent family of Whiteford’s leaving Ballochmyle, when Sir John’s misfortunes had obliged him to sell the estate. (Notes 50) The words date from 1785. Burns met Masterton in 1787. This, then, is a rare example of a melody being added afterwards. Music text © David Johnson, 1993.

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29 Gie my Love brose, brose

CHORUS Gie my Love brose, brose, Gie my Love brose an’ butter; An’ gie my Love brose, brose, Yestreen he wanted his supper. Jenny sits up i’ the laft, 5 Jocky wad fain a been at her; There cam a win’ out o’ the wast Made a’ the windows to clatter. Gie my Love, etc. A dow’s a dainty dish; A goose is hollow within; 10 A sight wad mak you blush, But a’ the fun’s to fin’. Gie my Love, etc. My Dadie sent me to the hill, To pow my minnie some heather; An’ drive it in your fill, 15 Ye’re welcome to the leather.

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Gie my Love, etc. A mouse is a merry wee beast; A modewurck wants the een; Ah’ O for the touch o’ the thing I had i’ my nieve yestreen. 20 Gie my Love, etc. The lark she loves the grass; The hen she loves the stibble; An’ hey for the Gar’ner lad, To gully awa wi’ his dibble.— MMC brose oatmeal mixed with boiling water or milk yestreen yesterday evening laft loft fain gladly wast west dow pigeon pow pull minnie mother modewurck mole nieve hand stibble stubble gully awa dig away dibble pointed stick for planting seedlings An early example of Burns’s liking for bawdy song, written on the reverse of a letter to Margaret Kennedy dated October 1785. In part, the song is traditional. Double entendres abound. No air is named.

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30 O wha my babie-clouts will buy Tune: Whare wad bonie Annie lie

O wha my babie-clouts will buy, O wha will tent me when I cry; Wha will kiss me where I lie. The rantin dog, the daddie o’t. Wha will own he did the faut, 5

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Wha will buy the groanin maut, Wha will tell me how to ca’t. The rantin dog the daddie o’t. When I mount the Creepie-chair, Wha will sit beside me there, 10 Gie me Rob, I’ll seek nae mair, The rantin dog the Daddie o’t. Wha will crack to me my lane; Wha will mak me fidgin fain; Wha will kiss me o’er again. 15 The rantin dog the Daddie o’t. SMM no. 277 (1790), signed Z babie-clouts baby-clothes tent care for rantin riotous faut fault groanin maut ale provided for visitors at a lying-in ca’t call it Creepie-chair three-legged stool of repentance in church crack chat my lane on my own fidgin fain excited, eager Burns commented, ‘I composed this song pretty early in life and sent it to a young girl, a very particular acquaintance of mine, who was at that time under a cloud’ (Notes 50). ‘O, wha my babie-clouts will buy’ could have been written either for Elizabeth Paton or for Jean Armour. The song was partly modelled on ‘The Cordial’, a wooing dialogue by Allan Ramsay which includes the question, ‘Will ye tent [heed] me when I cry?; but Burns’s handling of the theme, in which the girl expresses defiant loyalty to her lover and looks forward to further love-making, is strongly original. His last stanza aptly rehandles an idea in Ramsay’s lines

In my bosom thou shall ly, When thou wakrife art or dry, Healthy Cordial standing by, Shall presently revive thee.

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In SMM, the song is set to The east nook o’ Fife, but the tune given in a manuscript seen by James Dick, editor of The Songs of Robert Burns (1903) is Whare wad bonie Annie lie, which Burns is likely to have known from more than one eighteenth-century printed source, and accordingly Whare wad bonie Annie lie is chosen here.

Love and Liberty—A Cantata Burns wrote Love and Liberty not long after he and his friend John Richmond spent an evening in company with a group of beggars in the autumn of 1785. On the chance meeting with thirsty beggars in Poosie-Nansie’s tavern in Mauchline which inspired the poet, and his art in constructing the cantata so as to give it unity of design, see the Introduction pp. 9–10. He wanted to publish the cantata in the Edinburgh edition of his Poems, but was dissuaded from doing so by Hugh Blair, an influential literary critic and divine, on the grounds that it was ‘altogether too licentious’ and would damage his reputation. Thereafter he gave up thoughts of publication. Thomas Stewart, a nephew of John Richmond, first printed the cantata as a tract in 1799, conferring on it the title The Jolly Beggars, by which it has since been popularly known. It is included in Poems ascribed to Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Bard, edited by Stewart in 1801, and in Stewart’s edition of Burns’s poems (1802). According to a manuscript note by Stewart, there were originally ‘three scenes more which are now totally lost, viz. a Sailor, a Sootyman and Racer Jess’. (Racer Jess appears in The Holy Fair.) Love and Liberty—A Cantata is the poet’s title for the work in the Don MS, a transcript now in Edinburgh University Library’s Laing collection. Apart from the title, and music of no. 31, the present edition follows Dick. Love and Liberty—A Cantata RECITATIVO

WHEN lyart leaves bestrow the yird, Or, wavering like the bauckie-bird, Bedim cauld Boreas’ blast; When hailstanes drive wi’ bitter skyte, And infant frosts begin to bite, 5 In hoary cranreuch drest; Ae night at e’en a merry core O’ randie, gangrel bodies In Poosie Nansie’s held the splore, To drink their orra duddies: 10 Wi’ quaffing and laughing They ranted an’ they sang,

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Wi’ jumping an’ thumping, The vera girdle rang. First, niest the fire, in auld red rags 15 Ane sat; weel braced wi’ mealy bags And knapsack a’ in order; His doxy lay within his arm, Wi’ usquebae and blankets warm She blinket on her sodger: 20 An’ ay he gies the tozie drab The tither skelpin kiss, While she held up her greedy gab Just like an aumous dish: Ilk smack still, did crack still, 25 Just like a cadger’s whip, Then staggering an’ swaggering He roar’d this ditty up:— lyart streaked, withered yird earth bauckie-bird bat Boreas north wind skyte lash cranreuch hoar-frost core crowd randie riotous gangrel bodies vagabonds splore carousal orra duddies spare clothes ranted made merry vera very girdle griddle niest next doxy wench, girlfriend usquebae whisky blinket leered flirtatiously sodger soldier tozie tipsy drab whore skelpin smacking gab mouth aumous alms cadger’s hawker’s

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31 I am a son of Mars, who have been in many wars Tune: Soldier’s joy

I am a son of Mars, who have been in many wars, And show my cuts and scars wherever I come; This here was for a wench, and that other in a trench

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When welcoming the French at the sound of the drum. CHORUS Lal de daudle, etc. My prenticeship I past, where my leader breath’d his last, 5 When the bloody die was cast on the heights of Abram: And I servèd out my trade, when the gallant game was play’d, And the Moro low was laid at the sound of the drum. I lastly was with Curtis, among the floating batt’ries, And there I left for witness an arm and a limb; 10 Yet let my country need me, with Elliot to head me, I’d clatter on my stumps at the sound of a drum. And now, tho’ I must beg with a wooden arm and leg, And many a tatter’d rag hanging over my bum, I’m as happy with my wallet, my bottle, and my callet 15 As when I us’d in scarlet to follow a drum. What tho’ with hoary locks I must stand the winter shocks, Beneath the woods and rocks oftentimes for a home! When the t’other bag I sell, and the t’other bottle tell, I could meet a troop of hell at the sound of a drum. 20 heights of Abram After scaling the heights of Abraham, General Wolfe’s troops captured Quebec from the French in September 1759 the Moro a Castle defending the harbour of Santiago, Cuba, stormed by the British in 1762 Curtis…floating batt’ries… Elliot in 1779–83 Gibraltar was under siege by French and Spanish troops. Admiral Sir Roger Curtis (1746–1816) destroyed the enemy batteries, and General George Elliott (1717–90) held the Rock callet wench The air Soldier’s joy, to which ‘I am a Son of Mars, who have been in many wars’ is set, is adapted from McGlashan’s Scots Measures (1781), with the strains reversed in order. RECITATIVO

HE ended; and the kebars sheuk Aboon the chorus roar;

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While frighted rattons backward leuk, An’ seek the benmost bore: A fairy fiddler frae the neuk, 5 He skirl’d out, ‘Encore!’ But up arose the martial chuck, An’ laid the loud uproar:– kebars rafters sheuk shook rattons rats leuk look benmost bore inmost hole neuk corner skirl’d shrieked chuck sweetheart

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Songs and notes

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32 I once was a maid tho’ I cannot tell when Tune: Sodger laddie

I once was a maid tho’ I cannot tell when, And still my delight is in proper young men;

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Some one of a troop of dragoons was my dadie; No wonder I’m fond of a sodger laddie. CHORUS Sing, Lal de lal, etc The first of my loves was a swaggering blade; 5 To rattle the thundering drum was his trade; His leg was so tight and his cheek was so ruddy, Transported I was with my sodger laddie. But the godly old chaplain left him in the lurch; The sword I forsook for the sake of the church; 10 He ventur’d the soul, and I risked the body; ‘Twas then I proved false to my sodger laddie. Full soon I grew sick of my sanctified sot; The regiment at large for a husband I got; From the gilded spontoon to the fife I was ready; 15 I askèd no more but a sodger laddie. But the peace it reduc’d me to beg in despair, Till I met my old boy in a Cunningham fair; His rags regimental they flutter’d so gaudy; My heart it rejoic’d at a sodger laddie. 20 And now I have lived—I know not how long! And still I can join in a cup and a song; But whilst with both hands I can hold the glass steady, Here’s to thee, my hero, my sodger laddie. the Peace the Peace of Versailles, 1783 Cunningham northern Ayrshire ‘I once was a maid tho’ I cannot tell when’ is set to Sodger laddie, a seventeenth-century air in Orpheus Caledonius II (1733) no. 27, Bremner’s Reels (1757) and Stewart’s Reels (1761).

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RECITATIVO

POOR Merry Andrew, in the neuk Sat guzzling wi’ a tinkler-hizzie; They mind’t na wha the chorus teuk, Between themsels they were sae busy: At length wi’ drink an’ courting dizzy, 5 He stoiter’d up an’ made a face; Then turn’d an’ laid a smack on Grizzie, Syne tun’d his pipes wi’ grave grimace:— tinkler-hizzie tinker hussy mind’t cared stoiter’d staggered syne then

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Songs and notes

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33 Sir Wisdom’s a fool when he’s fou Tune: Auld Sir Symon

Sir Wisdom’s a fool when he’s fou; Sir Knave is a fool in a session, He’s there but a prentice I trow, But I am a fool by profession. My grannie she bought me a beuk, 5 An’ I held awa to the school; I fear I my talent misteuk, But what will ye hae of a fool? For drink I would venture my neck; A hizzie’s the half of my craft; 10 But what could ye other expect Of ane that’s avowedly daft? I ance was tied up like a stirk For civilly swearing and quaffing; I ance was abus’d i’ the kirk 15 For towsing a lass i’ my daffin. Poor Andrew that tumbles for sport Let naebody name wi’ a jeer:

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There’s even, I’m tauld, i’ the Court A tumbler ca’d the Premier. 20 Observ’d ye yon reverend lad Mak faces to tickle the mob; He rails at our mountebank squad,— It’s rivalship just i’ the job! And now my conclusion I’ll tell, 25 For faith! I’m confoundedly dry; The chiel that’s a fool for himsel, Gude Lord! he’s far dafter than I. fou drunk session court trow trust beuk book held awa went off misteuk mistook hizzie whore stirk bullock abus’d rebuked towsing handling indelicately daffin fooling chiel fellow The air Auld Sir Symon, to which ‘Sir Wisdom’s a fool when he’s fou’ is set, is in Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719–20) III 143, The Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) VII no. 6 and in McGibbon’s Scots Tunes (1768) IV 102. RECITATIVO

THEN niest outspak a raucle carlin, Wha kent fu’ weel to cleek the sterlin; For mony a pursie she had hookèd, An’ had in mony a well been doukèd. Her love had been a Highland laddie, 5 But weary fa’ the waefu’ woodie! Wi’ sighs an’ sobs she thus began To wail her braw John Highlandman:—

Songs and notes

raucle carlin rough old woman cleek steal sterlin money douked ducked weary fa’ a curse on woodie hangman’s rope

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Songs and notes

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34 A Highland lad my love was born Tune: O, an ye were dead, Guidman

A Highland lad my love was born, The lalland laws he held in scorn, But he still was faithfu’ to his clan, My gallant, braw John Highlandman.

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CHORUS Sing hey my braw John Highlandman! 5 Sing ho my braw John Highlandman! There’s not a lad in a’ the lan’ Was match for my John Highlandman! With his philabeg an’ tartan plaid, An’ guid claymore down by his side, 10 The ladies’ hearts he did trepan, My gallant, braw John Highlandman. We rangèd a’ from Tweed to Spey, An’ liv’d like lords an’ ladies gay; For a lalland face he fearèd none,—15 My gallant, braw John Highlandman. They banish’d him beyond the sea, But ere the bud was on the tree, Adown my cheeks the pearls ran, Embracing my John Highlandman. 20 But, och! they catch’d him at the last, And bound him in a dungeon fast; My curse upon them every one— They’ve hang’d my braw John Highlandman! And now a widow I must mourn 25 The pleasures that will ne’er return; No comfort but a hearty can, When I think on John Highlandman. lalland lowland philabeg kilt plaid long piece of woollen cloth, used as a cloak claymore two-handed Highland sword trepan beguile ‘A highland lad my love was born’ is set to O, an ye were dead, Guidman, which Burns knew from the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV.

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RECITATIVO

A pigmy scraper wi’ his fiddle, Wha us’d to trystes an’ fairs to driddle, Her strappan limb an’ gausy middle (He reach’d nae higher) Had hol’d his heartie like a riddle, 5 An’ blawn’t on fire. Wi’ hand on hainch, and upward e’e, He croon’d his gamut, one, two, three, Then in an arioso key The wee Apollo, 10 Set off wi’ allegretto glee His giga solo:— trystes cattle-fairs driddle dawdle gawsie plump blawn’t blown it croon’d hummed

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Songs and notes

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35 Let me ryke up to dight that tear Tune: Whistle owre the lave o’t

Let me ryke up to dight that tear, An’ go wi’ me an’ be my dear, An’ then your every care an’ fear May whistle owre the lave o’t. CHORUS I am a fiddler to my trade, 5 An’ a’ the tunes that e’er I play’d, The sweetest still to wife or maid Was—whistle owre the lave o’t. At kirns an’ weddins we’se be there, An’ O, sae nicely’s we will fare! 10 We’ll bowse about till Dadie Care

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Sing, Whistle owre the lave o’t. Sae merrily’s the banes we’ll pyke, An’ sun oursels about the dyke; An’ at our leisure, when ye like 15 We’ll whistle owre the lave o’t. But bless me wi’ your heav’n o’ charms, An’ while I kittle hair on thairms, Hunger, cauld, an’ a’ sic harms May whistle owre the lave o’t. 20 ryke reach dight wipe lave rest kirns harvest-homes we’se we’ll bowse about drink in turn banes bones pyke pick dyke dry-stone wall kittle tickle thairms fiddle strings ‘Let me ryke up to dight that tear’ isset to Whistle owre the lave o’t, printed in Bremner’s Scots Reels (1759) and elsewhere. Burns was to choose this air for ‘First when Maggy was my care’, SMM no. 249 (1790). RECITATIVO

HER charms had struck a sturdy caird As weel as poor gut-scraper; He taks the fiddler by the beard, An’ draws a roosty rapier— He swoor by a’ was swearing worth 5 To speet him like a pliver, Unless he would from that time forth Relinquish her for ever. Wi’ ghastly e’e, poor Tweedle dee Upon his hunkers bended, 10

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An’ pray’d for grace wi’ ruefu’ face, An’ so the quarrel ended. But tho’ his little heart did grieve When round the tinkler prest her, He feign’d to snirtle in his sleeve 15 When thus the caird address’d her:— caird tinker roosty rusty swoor swore speet spit, skewer pliver plover hunkers haunches snirtle snigger

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36 My bonie lass, I work in brass Tune: Clout the caudron

My bonie lass, I work in brass, A tinkler is my station; I’ve travell’d round all Christian ground In this my occupation; I’ve ta’en the gold, an’ been enroll’d 5 In many a noble squadron: But vain they search’d, when off I march’d To go an’ clout the caudron. I’ve ta’en the gold, etc. Despise that shrimp, that wither’d imp, With a’ his noise an’ cap’rin, 10 An’ take a share with those that bear The budget and the apron:

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And by that stowp, my faith and houpe, And by that dear Kilbaigie, If e’er ye want, or meet with scant, 15 May I ne’er weet my craigie! And by that stowp, etc. clout patch budget leather bag stowp tankard houpe hope Kilbaigie whisky distilled at Kilbagie, near Clackmannan scant dearth weet wet craigie throat ‘My bonie lass, I work in brass’ isset to Clout the caudron, which is in Orpheus Caledonius II (1733) no. 25, and in SMM no. 23 (1787). Burns had used it for no. 25 ‘Ye jovial boys who love the joys’. RECITATIVO

THE caird prevail’d—th’ unblushing fair In his embraces sunk, Partly wi’ love, o’ercome sae sair, An’ partly she was drunk. Sir Violino, with an air 5 That show’d a man o’ spunk, Wish’d unison between the pair, An’ made the bottle clunk To their health that night. But hurchin Cupid shot a shaft 10 That play’d a dame a shavie; The fiddler rak’d her fore and aft, Behint the chicken cavie. Her lord, a wight of Homer’s* craft, Tho’ limpan wi’ the spavie, 15 He hirpl’d up, and lap like daft, And shor’d them Dainty Davie O’boot that night.

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He was a care-defying blade As ever Bacchus listed! 20 Tho’ Fortune sair upon him laid, His heart, she ever miss’d it. He had no wish but—to be glad, Nor want but—when he thristed; He hated nought but—to be sad; 25 An’ thus the Muse suggested His sang that night:— * Homer is allowed to be the eldest ballad singer on record—Burns.

spunk spirit clunk gurgle hurchin urchin shavie trick chicken-cavie hen-coop spavie spavin hirpl’d limped lap leaped shor’d offered Dainty Davie licence to enjoy themselves (after Rev. David Williamson, a Covenanter with a reputation for sexual vigour) o’boot into the bargain

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37 I am a bard, of no regard Tune: For a’ that, an’ a’ that

I am a bard, of no regard Wi’ gentle folks an’ a’ that; But Homer-like, the glowran byke, Frae town to town I draw that. CHORUS For a’ that, an’ a’ that, 5 An’ twice as muckle’s a’ that; I’ve lost but ane, I’ve twa behin’, I’ve wife eneugh for a’ that. I never drank the Muses’ stank, Castalia’s burn, an’ a’ that; 10

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But there it streams, an’ richly reams, My Helicon I ca’ that. Great love I bear to all the fair, Their humble slave an’ a’ that; But lordly will, I hold it still 15 A mortal sin to thraw that. In raptures sweet, this hour we meet, Wi’ mutual love an’ a’ that: But for how lang the flie may stang, Let inclination law that. 20 Their tricks an’ craft hae put me daft, They’ve taen me in, an’ a’ that; But clear your decks an’ here’s ‘the Sex!’ I like the jads for a’ that. For a’ that, an’ a’ that, 25 An’ twice as muckle’s a’ that; My dearest bluid, to do them guid, They’re welcome till’t for a’ that. glowrin byke staring crowd stank ‘pool of standing water’ (Burns) burn stream reams froths thraw thwart flie fly stang sting jads wenches bluid blood The bard’s first song ‘I am a bard, of no regard’ has as its air For a’ that, an’ a’ that, a variant of Lady Macintosh’s Reel, in Bremner’s Scots Reels (1759). Burns used the same tune for no. 276 ‘Is there, for honest Poverty’, the mood of which is similarly defiant. RECITATIVO

So sung the bard—and Nansie’s wa’s Shook with a thunder of applause

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Re-echoed from each mouth! They toom’d their pocks, they pawn’d their duds, They scarely left to coor their fuds 5 To quench their lowan drouth: Then owre again, the jovial thrang, The poet did request To lowse his pack and wale a sang, A ballad o’ the best; 10 He rising, rejoicing, Between his twa Debòrahs, Looks round him, an’ found them Impatient for the chorus:— toom’d emptied pocks pockets duds clothes coor cover fuds tails lowan drouth burning thirst thrang throng lowse untie wale choose Deborahs Judges v. 12

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38 See the smoking bowl before us Tune: Jolly mortals, fill your glasses

See the smoking bowl before us, Mark our jovial, ragged ring! Round and round take up the chorus, And in raptures let us sing— CHORUS A fig for those by law protected! 5 Liberty’s a glorious feast! Courts for cowards were erected, Churches built to please the priest! What is title, what is treasure, What is reputation’s care? 10 If we lead a life of pleasure, ‘Tis no matter how or where! With the ready trick and fable Round we wander all the day;

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And at night, in barn or stable 15 Hug our doxies on the hay. Does the train-attended carriage Thro’ the country lighter rove? Does the sober bed of marriage Witness brighter scenes of love? 20 Life is all a variorum, We regard not how it goes; Let them cant about decorum, Who have character to lose. Here’s to budgets, bags, and wallets! 25 Here’s to all the wandering train! Here’s our ragged brats and callets! One and all, cry out,—‘Amen’! A fig for those by law protected! Liberty’s a glorious feast! 30 Courts for cowards were erected, Churches built to please the priest! ‘See the smoking bowl before us’ is set to Jolly mortals, fill your glasses, printed in Ritson’s English Songs (1783) III. Daiches notes that it has a suggestion of the hymn; Kinsley that it may be the origin of the hymn-tune ‘Sussex’ (The English Hymnal (1933) no. 239).

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39 ‘Twas even—the dewy fields were green Tune: Ettrick Banks

’Twas even, the dewy fields were green, On every blade the pearls hang; The Zephyr wanton’d round the bean, And bore its fragrant sweets alang; In ev’ry glen the mavis sang, 5 All Nature list’ning seem’d the while, Except where green-wood echoes rang,

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Amang the braes o’ Ballochmyle. With careless step I onward stray’d, My heart rejoic’d in nature’s joy, 10 When, musing in a lonely glade, A Maiden fair I chanc’d to spy; Her look was like the morning’s eye, Her air like nature’s vernal smile, The lilies’ hue and roses’ die 15 Bespoke the Lass o’ Ballochmyle. Fair is a morn in flow’ry May, And sweet an ev’n in Autumn mild; When roving through the garden gay, Or wand’ring in the lonely wild; 20 But Woman, Nature’s darling child, There all her charms she does compile, Even there her other works are foil’d By th’ bonny Lass o’ Ballochmyle. O had she been a country Maid, 25 And I the happy country swain! Though shelter’d in the lowest shed That ever rose on Scotia’s plain! Through weary winter’s wind and rain With joy, with rapture, I would toil; 30 And nightly to my bosom strain The bonny Lass o’ Ballochmyle. Then pride might climb the slipp’ry steep Where fame and honors lofty shine: And thirst of gold might tempt the deep, 35 Or downward seek the Indian mine; Give me the cot below the pine, To tend the flocks or till the soil, And ev’ry day have joys divine, With the bonny Lass o’ Ballochmyle. 40 Currie (1800)

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mavis thrush Wilhelmina Alexander (1753–1843) was the sister of Claud Alexander who retired in 1785 from the East India Company and bought the estate of Ballochmyle near Mauchline. Burns wrote this song in the spring of 1786 after an evening walk. He explained in a letter to Miss Alexander, Poets are such outré Beings, so much the children of wayward Fancy and capricious Whim, that I believe the world generally allows them a larger latitude in the rules of Propriety, than the sober Sons of Judgment and Prudence…. The Scenery was nearly taken from real life; though I dare say, Madam, you don’t recollect it: for I believe you scarcely noticed the poetic Reveur, as he wandered by you.—I had roved out as Chance directed, on the favorite haunts of my Muse, the banks of Ayr; to view Nature in all the gayety of the vernal year.—The Sun was flaming o’er the distant, western hills; not a breath stirred the crimson opening blossom, or the verdant spreading leaf. ’Twas a golden moment for a poetic heart…. Such was the scene, and such the hour, when in a corner of my Prospect I spyed one of the finest pieces of Nature’s workmanship that ever crowned a poetic Landskip; those visionary Bards excepted who hold commerce with aerial Beings…. The inclosed Song was the work of my return home: and perhaps but poorly answers what might have been expected from such a scene.—I am going to print a second Edition of my Poems, but cannot insert these verses without your permission. (Letter 56, Letters I 63–4) Wilhelmina Alexander declined to let him publish the song, however, and refused to change her mind on the subject. Burns added a wry comment on his copy of this letter years later: ‘Well Mr Burns, & did the Lady give you the desired ‘Permission?’—No! She was too fine a Lady to notice so plain a compliment.—As to her great brothers, whom I have since met in life, on more ‘equal’ terms of respectability, why should I quarrel their want of attention to me?—When Fate swore that their purses should be full, Nature was equally positive that their heads should be empty.—‘Men of their fashion were surely incapable of being unpolite?’—Ye canna mak a silk-purse o’ a sow’s lug.’ (ibid., 64) According to James Dick, ‘when the poet had become famous, and she was a maiden past her prime, she had the song and the letter framed, and hung them up in her hall’ (Dick 358). The song was written for the air Ettrick Banks, printed in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 45 and elsewhere.

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40 O thou pale Orb that silent shines Tune: Scots Queen

O thou pale Orb that silent shines While care-untroubled mortals sleep! Thou see’st a wretch who inly pines, And wanders here to wail and weep! With Woe I nightly vigils keep 5 Beneath thy wan, unwarming beam;

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And mourn, in lamentation deep, How life and love are all a dream! O! thou bright Queen, who, o’er th’ expanse, Now highest reign’st, with boundless sway! 10 Oft has thy silent-marking glance Observ’d us, fondly-wand’ring, stray! The time, unheeded, sped away, While Love’s luxurious pulse beat high, Beneath thy silver-gleaming ray, 15 To mark the mutual-kindling eye. Oh! scenes in strong remembrance set! Scenes, never, never to return! Scenes, if in stupor I forget, Again I feel, again I burn! 20 From ev’ry joy and pleasure torn, Life’s weary vale I’ll wander thro’; And hopeless, comfortless, I’ll mourn A faithless woman’s broken vow. Poems (1786) Extracted from ‘The Lament’, a poem written in the spring or summer of 1786 out of Burns’s distress over the attitude shown to him by Jean Armour and her parents. He commented in 1787 in his autobiographical letter to Dr John Moore: ’‘Twas a shocking affair, which I cannot yet bear to recollect; and had very nearly given [me] one or two of the principal qualifications for a place among those who have lost the chart and mistake the reckoning of Rationality’ (Letter 125, Letters I 144). In giving James Johnson instructions for the SMM, he wrote: ‘For the tune in the Scotch Queen, Oswald, take the first and the last two stanzas of the poem entitled The Lament in Burns’s poems’. The air was instead matched with a song by Clarinda, which Burns revised (cf. no. 88 ‘Go on, sweet bird, and soothe my care’ SMM no. 190 (1788)). The Scots Queen is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) XII no. 1 and is SMM no. 190 (1788).

41 Nae gentle dames, tho’ ne’er sae fair

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Tune: McLauchlin’s Scots-measure

Nae gentle dames, tho’ ne’er sae fair, Shall ever be my Muse’s care: Their titles a’ are empty show— Gie me my Highland Lassie, O. CHORUS Within the glen sae bushy, O! 5 Aboon the plain sae rashy, O! I set me down wi’ right gude will, To sing my Highland Lassie, O!

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O were yon hills and vallies mine, Yon palace and yon gardens fine; 10 The world then the love should know I bear my Highland Lassie, O. Within the glen, etc. But fickle Fortune frowns on me, And I maun cross the raging sea; But while my crimson currents flow, 15 I love my Highland Lassie, O. Within the glen, etc. Altho’ thro’ foreign climes I range, I know her heart will never change; For her bosom burns with honor’s glow, My faithful Highland Lassie, O. 20 Within the glen, etc. For her I’ll dare the billow’s roar; For her I’ll trace a distant shore; That Indian wealth may lustre throw Around my Highland Lassie, O. Within the glen, etc. She has my heart, she has my hand, 25 By secret Truth and Honor’s band: Till the mortal stroke shall lay me low, I’m thine, my Highland Lassie, O. Farewell, the glen sae bushy! O. Farewell, the plain sae rashy! O. 30 To other lands I now must go To sing my Highland Lassie, O. SMM no. 117 (1788), signed ‘X’; Hastie MS, f. 25. One of a number of songs inspired by ‘Highland Mary’ (Mary Campbell), to whom Burns turned in the summer of 1786 when he had been rejected by Jean Armour’s family. Years later he commented,

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This was a composition of mine in very early life, before I was known at all in the world. My Highland lassie was a warm-hearted, charming young creature as ever blessed a man with generous love. After a pretty long tract of the most ardent reciprocal attachment, we met by appointment, on the second Sunday of May, in a sequestered spot by the Banks of Ayr, where we spent the day in taking a farewel, before she should embark for the West-Highlands, to arrange matters among her friends for our projected change of life. At the close of Autumn following she crossed the sea to meet me at Greenock, where she had scarce landed when she was seized with a malignant fever, which hurried my dear girl to the grave in a few days, before I could even hear of her illness. (Cromek, Reliques (1808) 237) George Thomson wrote to him in November 1792, ‘I have heard the sad story of your Mary: you always seem inspired when you write of her’ (Currie (1800) IV 22–3). A romantic legend grew up in the nineteenth century around Highland Mary, which modern biographers have questioned. The antiquary Joseph Train (1779–1852) wrote to J.G.Lockhart, ‘Highland Mary.—Truth deprives her history of much of its charm.—Her character was loose in the extreme…’. The air which Burns originally chose for the song was McLauchlin’s [The Inverness] Scots Measure, which had been printed in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI no. 28, and in Aird’s Airs, (1782) II no. 95. Later, he suggested to George Thomson that the song be set to The White Cockade (see no. 146). Thomson wrongly set it to The deuk’s dang o’er my daddie (cf. no. 212).

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42 Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu Tune: Good night and joy by wi’ you a’

Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu; Dear brothers of the mystic tye! Ye favoured enlighten’d few, Companions of my social joy! Tho’ I to foreign lands must hie; 5 Pursuing Fortune’s slidd’ry ba’; With melting heart and brimful eye, I’ll mind you still, tho’ far awa’.

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Oft have I met your social Band, And spent the chearful, festive night; 10 Oft, honour’d with supreme command, Presided o’er the Sons of light: And by that Hieroglyphic bright, Which none but Craftsmen ever saw! Strong Mem’ry on my heart shall write 15 Those happy scenes when far awa’! May Freedom, Harmony, and Love, Unite you in the grand Design, Beneath th’ Omniscient Eye above, The glorious Architect Divine! 20 That you may keep th’ unerring line, Still rising by the plummet’s law, Till Order bright completely shine, Shall be my pray’r when far awa’. And You, farewell! whose merits claim, 25 Justly that highest badge to wear! Heav’n bless your honour’d, noble Name, To Masonry and Scotia dear! A last request permit me here, When yearly ye assemble a’, 30 One round, I ask it with a tear, To him, the Bard that’s far awa’. SMM no. 600 (1803) slidd’ry ba’ slippery ball mind remember Written in the early summer of 1786, when Burns was planning to emigrate to Jamaica, and included in the Kilmarnock edition under the title ‘The farewell, To the brethren of St. James’s Lodge, Tarbolton’. The song uses the language and terms of freemasonry, to which Burns had been introduced in 1781. The tune to which ‘The Farewell’ is set was that of the then traditional Scottish parting-song (eventually to be replaced in public favour by ‘Auld Lang Syne’). It was available to Burns in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 32. Burns wrote to James Johnson in August or September 1785:

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‘Gude night & joy be wi’ you a’.’—let this be your last song of all in the Collection; & set it to the old words; & after them, insert my ‘Gude night & joy be wi’ you a’’ which you will find in my Poems. The old words are—

The night is my departing night, The morn’s the day I maun awa, There’s no a friend or fae o’ mine, But wishes that I were awa. What I hae done for lack o’ wit I never never can reca’: I trust ye’re a’ my friends as yet, Gude night and joy be wi’ you a’. (Letter 684, Letters II 370) He had written to George Thomson on 7 April 1793, Ballad-making is now as compleatly my hobby-horse, as ever Fortification was Uncle Toby’s; so I’ll e’en canter it away till I come to the limit of my race, (God grant that I may take the right side of the winning-post!) & then chearfully looking back on the honest folks with whom I have been happy, I shall say, or sing, ‘Sae merry as we a’ hae been’—& then, raising my last looks to the whole Human-race, the last voice of Coila shall be—‘Good night & joy be wi’ you a’!’ (Letter 557, Letters II 204)

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43 The gloomy night is gath’ring fast Tune: Roslin Castle

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The gloomy night is gath’ring fast, Loud roars the wild, inconstant blast; Yon murky cloud is foul with rain, I see it driving o’er the plain; The hunter now has left the moor, 5 The scatt’red coveys meet secure; While here I wander, prest with care, Along the lonely banks of Ayr. The Autumn mourns her rip’ning corn By early Winter’s ravage torn; 10 Across her placid, azure sky, She sees the scowling tempest fly: Chill runs my blood to hear it rave, I think upon the stormy wave, Where many a danger I must dare, 15 Far from the bonie banks of Ayr. ’Tis not the surging billow’s roar, ’Tis not that fatal, deadly shore; Tho’ Death in ev’ry shape appear, The Wretched have no more to fear: 20 But round my heart the ties are bound, That heart transpierc’d with many a wound; These bleed afresh, these ties I tear, To leave the bonie banks of Ayr. Farewell, old Coila’s hills and dales, 25 Her heathy moors and winding vales; The scenes where wretched Fancy roves, Pursuing past, unhappy loves! Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes! My peace with these, my love with those—30 The bursting tears my heart declare, Farewell, the bonie banks of Ayr! SMM no. 284 (1790)

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Written in the autumn of 1786, when Burns believed he was about to emigrate to the West Indies. He commented later, ‘I composed this song as I convoyed my chest so far on the road to Greenock, where I was to embark in a few days for Jamaica. I meant it as my farewel Dirge to my native land’ (Cromek, Reliques (1808) 279). He makes a similar statement in his autobiographical letter to Dr Moore, ‘I had composed my last song I should ever measure in Caledonia, ‘The gloomy night…’’ (Letter 125, Letters I 145). According to Josiah Walker, the poet had left Dr Lawrie’s house at Newmilns after a visit which he expected to be the last, at the end of September, and faced a long, bleak walk across Galston moor towards Mauchline. In the song, which captures his feelings on this occasion, he refers to Newmilns castle and to the river Irvine. ‘Coila’ appears in his poem ‘The Vision’ as the guardian spirit of Kyle, his native central district of Ayrshire. Roslin Castle, ‘one of the best double tunes in Scottish collections’ (James Dick), was first printed in McGibbon’s Collection of Scots Tunes (1746) no. 31, with the title House of Glams, and as Roslin Castle in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 3.

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44 Tho’ cruel fate should bid us part Tune: She rose and let me in

Tho’ cruel fate should bid us part, Far as the pole and line; Her dear idea round my heart Should tenderly entwine. Tho’ mountains rise, and deserts howl, 5 And oceans roar between; Yet, dearer than my deathless soul,

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I still would love my Jean. SMM no. 118 (1788), signed R. ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 26 One of a small group of early songs included in the Stair MS in the autumn of 1786. Burns’s first choice of air was She rose and let me in, which had appeared in Orpheus Caledonius II (1733) no. 14, and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I no. 21. Subsequently, he suggested as a tune McPherson’s Farewell (no. 70).

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45 Green grow the rashes, O Tune: Green grow the rashes, O

CHORUS Green grow the rashes O, Green grow the rashes O, The lasses they hae wimble bores, The widows they hae gashes O. In sober hours I am a priest; 5 A hero when I’m tipsey, O; But I’m a king and ev’ry thing, When wi’ a wanton Gipsey, O. Green grow, etc.

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’Twas late yestreen I met wi’ ane, An’ wow, but she was gentle, O! 10 Ae han’ she pat roun’ my cravat, The tither to my p—O. Green grow, etc. I dought na speak—yet was na fley’d— My heart play’d duntie, duntie, O; An’ ceremony laid aside, 15 I fairly fun’ her c-ntie, O.— Green grow, etc. Multa desunt MMC wimble bores gimlet holes yestreen yesterday evening ae han’ one hand pat put dought na dared not fley’d frightened fun’ found Burns sent this song to his friend John Richmond on 3 September 1786, along with a note: ‘Wish me luck… Armour has just now brought me a fine boy and a girl at one throw. God bless the poor little dears!’ (Letter 45, Letters I 51). Although it is partly based on traditional verses (cf. Herd’s Manuscripts (1904) 118), Burns has made an original song out of the tune’s association with sex, which may be compared with his more famous ‘polite’ version, no. 23.

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46 Ye sons of old Killie, assembled by Willie Tune: Over the water to Charlie

Ye sons of old Killie, assembled by Willie, To follow the noble vocation; Your thrifty old mother has scarce such another

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To sit in that honoured station. I’ve little to say, but only to pray, 5 As praying’s the ton of your fashion; A prayer from the muse you well may excuse, ’Tis seldom her favourite passion. Ye powers who preside o’er the wind and the tide, Who marked each element’s border; 10 Who formed this frame with beneficent aim, Whose sovereign statute is order; Within this dear mansion may wayward contention Or withered envy ne’er enter; May secresy round be the mystical bound, 15 And brotherly love be the centre. The Works of Robert Burns, ed. Allan Cunningham (1834) One of Burns’s Masonic songs. Allan Cunningham, who first published this song, printed a note from the poet’s MS: ‘This song, wrote by Mr. Burns, was sung by him in the Kilmarnock Kilwinning Lodge, in 1786, and given by him to Mr. Parker, who was Master of the Lodge’. ‘Willie’ (l.1) is William Parker, a banker in Kilmarnock (‘old Killie’). Burns was admitted an honorary member of the Kilmarnock lodge, St John Kilwinning, on 26 October 1786. Shawnboy, a Jacobite air better known as Over the Water to Charlie, had been published in a number of collections, including Aird’s Airs (1782) I no. 98.

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47 Again rejoicing Nature sees Tune: Jockey’s gray breeks

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Again rejoicing Nature sees Her robe assume its vernal hues; Her leafy locks wave in the breeze, All freshly steep’d in morning dews. CHORUS And maun I still on Menie doat, 5 And bear the scorn that’s in her e’e? For it’s jet, jet black, an’ it’s like a hawk, An’ it winna let a body be! In vain to me the cowslips blaw, In vain to me the vi’lets spring; 10 In vain to me, in glen or shaw, The mavis and the lintwhite sing. And maun I still, etc. The merry Ploughboy cheers his team, Wi joy the tentie Seedsman stalks, But life to me’s a weary dream, 15 A dream of ane that never wauks. And maun I still, etc. The wanton coot the water skims, Amang the reeds the ducklings cry, The stately swan majestic swims, And ev’ry thing is blest but I. 20 And maun I still, etc. The Sheep-herd steeks his faulding slap, And owre the moorlands whistles shill, Wi’ wild, unequal, wand’ring step I meet him on the dewy hill. And maun I still, etc. And when the lark, ‘tween light and dark, 25 Blythe waukens by the daisy’s side, And mounts and sings on flittering wings,

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A woe-worn ghaist I hameward glide. And maun I still, etc. Come Winter, with thine angry howl, And raging bend the naked tree; 30 Thy gloom will soothe my chearless soul, When Nature all is sad like me! ***

And maun I still on Menie doat, And bear the scorn that’s in her e’e? For it’s jet, jet black, an’ it’s like a hawk, 35 An’ it winna let a body be! Poems (1787) winna will not shaw wood a body a person mavis thrush tentie careful wauks wakes steeks shuts faulding slap fold gate shill shrill flittering fluttering ghaist ghost In the Edinburgh edition of Poems (1787) there are two footnotes to the Chorus of ‘Again rejoicing Nature sees’: This Chorus is part of a song composed by a gentleman in Edinburgh, a particular friend of the Author’s. Menie is the common abbreviation of Marianne. According to Burns’s late nineteenth-century editor William Scott Douglas, however, the chorus was written by the poet himself; he changed the name to Menie to conceal the fact that the song was actually about Jean Armour (who did in fact have dark eyes). Burns was in Edinburgh at the beginning of 1787, correcting the proofs of his Poems. It is possible that he added the chorus there, to fit a two-part air. The air Jockey’s gray breeks (a variant of The Weaver and his shuttle, O, no. 12) is in SMM no. 27 (1787).

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48 There was a lad was born in Kyle Tune: Dainty Davie

CHORUS Robin was a rovin boy, Rantin, rovin, rantin, rovin, Robin was a rovin boy, Rantin’, rovin’ Robin! There was a lad was born in Kyle, 5 But what na day o’ what na style, I doubt it’s hardly worth the while

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To be sae nice wi’ Robin. Our monarch’s hindmost year but ane Was five-and-twenty days begun, 10 ’Twas then a blast o’ Janwar’ Win’* Blew hansel in on Robin. The Gossip keekit in his loof, Quo’ scho wha lives will see the proof, This waly boy will be nae coof, 15 I think we’ll ca’ him Robin. He’ll hae misfortunes great and sma’, But ay a heart aboon them a’; He’ll be a credit to us a’, We’ll a’ be proud o’ Robin. 20 But sure as three times three mak nine, I see by ilka core and line, This chap will dearly like our kin’, So leeze me on thee, Robin. Guid faith quo’ scho I doubt you Sir, 25 Ye’ll gar the lasses lie aspar; But twenty fauts ye may hae waur— So blessins on thee, Robin. Cromek, Reliques (1808) *Jan. 25th 1759, the date of my Bardship’s vital existence—

Kyle the central district of Ayrshire what na what rantin’ riotous hindmost last Janwar’ Win’ January wind hansel new-year or good-luck gift Gossip neighbour-woman keekit looked loof palm Quo’ said waly handsome coof fool

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mak make ilka each our kin’ our sex leeze me on I am delighted by scho she aspar with legs apart A version of this song, with minor variations from the one collected by Cromek, exists in Burns’s second (Edinburgh) commonplace book. The song was probably written in late January 1787 in wry celebration of the poet’s birthday, which he mentions in a footnote to line 11. Burns had obviously been told by his parents of the great storm in Alloway in January 1759. For the rest, he relies on his sense of humour and ironic self-awareness. Gilbert Burns wrote of the damage done to their home. When my father built his ‘clay biggin,’ he put in two stone-jambs, as they are called, and a lintel, carrying up the chimney in his clay-gable. The consequence was, that as the gable subsided, the jambs, remaining firm, threw it off centre; and, one very stormy morning, when my brother was nine or ten days old, a little before daylight, a part of the gable fell out, and the rest appeared so shattered, that my mother, with the young poet, had to be carried through the storm to a neighbour’s house, where they remained a week, till their own dwelling was adjusted. (Quoted by F.B.Snyder, The Life of Robert Burns (1932) 39) Burns stated clearly that ‘There was a lad was born in Kyle’ was intended to be set to the traditional tune Dainty Davie; but the song is usually sung, following nineteenth-century practice, to a different air, O an ye were dead Gudeman. Dainty Davie is given in SMM no. 34 (1787).

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49 He clench’d his pamphlets in his fist Tune: Killiecrankie

Extempore, in the Court of S—

LORD A—TE He clench’d his pamphlets in his fist, He quoted and he hinted, ’Till in a declamation mist, His argument he tint it; He gapèd for’t, he grapèd for’t, 5

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He fand it was awa, man; And what his common sense came short, He ek’d out wi’ law, man. MR ER—NE— Collected, Harry stood awee, Then open’d out his arm, man; 10 His lordship sat wi’ ruefu’ e’e, And ey’d the gathering storm, man: Like wind-driv’n hail it did assail, Or torrents owre a lin, man; The BENCH sae wise lift up their eyes, 15 Half-wauken’d wi’ the din, man. Cromek, Reliques (1808) tint lost graped groped fand found awee for a moment lin waterfall wauken’d wakened Written in March 1787, about the protagonists in an Edinburgh lawsuit, the Lord Advocate, Ilay Campbell, and Henry Erskine, Dean of Faculty (1786), who became a friend and patron of Burns in December 1786. Henry Cockburn notes in Memorials Of His Time that while Campbell’s speeches were ‘always admirable in matter’, his voice was ‘low and dull, his face sedate and hard’. Henry Erskine was celebrated as a wit. Burns sketches the lawyers in a song as a caricaturist might have drawn them. The air Killiecrankie, with Jacobite associations, is in SMM no. 102 (1788), but Burns’s words work best fitted to the early eighteenth-century form of the tune (as given, e.g., in the James Thomson recorder book, 1702).

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50 ‘O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?’ Tune: Bonie Dundee

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‘O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?’ O silly blind body, O dinna ye see? I gat it frae a young, brisk sodger laddie, Between Saint Johnston and bonie Dundee. O gin I saw the laddie that gae me’t! 5 Aft has he doudl’d me up on his knee; May heav’n protect my bonie Scots laddie, And send him safe hame to his babie and me! My blessins upon thy sweet, wee lippie! My blessins upon thy bonie e’e brie! 10 Thy smiles are sae like my blyth Sodger laddie, Thou’s ay the dearer, and dearer to me! But I’ll big a bow’r on yon bonie banks, Whare Tay rins wimplin by sae clear; And I’ll cleed thee in the tartan sae fine, 15 And mak thee a man like thy dadie dear. SMM no. 99 (1787) hauver-meal bannock oatmeal cake dinna don’t you sodger soldier Saint Johnston Perth gin if gae gave aft often doudl’d dandled e’e brie eyebrow big build wimplin meandering cleed clothe The first stanza of this song is traditional. Burns jotted it down on the back of a letter from the Earl of Buchan dated 1 February 1787, and soon afterwards sent his draft additional stanza to Cleghorn (Letter 91, Letters I 103). He had as a model a traditional song dealing with a girl seduced by a soldier, but departed from it in treating the story from the girl’s romantic viewpoint. The tune is in SMM no. 99 (1787).

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51 Yon wild, mossy mountains sae lofty and wide Tune: Phoebe

Yon wild, mossy mountains sae lofty and wide, That nurse in their bosom the youth o’ the Clyde, Where the grous lead their coveys thro’ the heather to feed, And the shepherd tents his flock as he pipes on his reed. Not Gowrie’s rich valley, nor Forth’s sunny shores, 5

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To me hae the charms o’ yon wild, mossy moors: For there, by a lanely, sequestered stream, Resides a sweet Lassie, my thought and my dream. Amang thae wild mountains shall still be my path, Ilk stream foaming down its ain green, narrow strath, 10 For there, wi’ my Lassie, the day-lang I rove, While o’er us, unheeded, flie the swift hours o’ Love. She is not the fairest, altho’ she is fair; O’ nice education but sma’ is her shair; Her parentage humble as humble can be; 15 But I loe the dear Lassie because she loes me. To Beauty what man but maun yield him a prize, In her armour of glances, and blushes, and sighs; And when Wit and Refinement hae polish’d her darts, They dazzle our een, as they flie to our hearts. 20 But Kindness, sweet Kindness, in the fond-sparkling e’e, Has lustre outshining the diamond to me; And the heart beating love as I’m clasp’d in her arms, O, these are my Lassie’s all-conquering charms. SMM no. 331 (1792), signed X; Hastie MS, f. 70 lanely lonely thae those strath river valley -lang long sma’ small ‘This tune is by Oswald. The song alludes to a part of my private history, which it is of no consequence to the world to know’ (Notes 58). The song may date from 1787, when the poet passed through Lanarkshire on his way to Edinburgh, close to the ‘wild, mossy mountains’ and the river Clyde. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 19.

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52 My Harry was a gallant gay Tune: Highlander’s lament

My Harry was a gallant gay, Fu’ stately strade he on the plain; But now he’s banish’d far awa, I’ll never see him back again. CHORUS O for him back again, 5 O for him back again, I wad gie a’ Knockhaspie’s land For Highland Harry back again. When a’ the lave gae to their bed, I wander dowie up the glen; 10

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I set me down and greet my fill, And ay I wish him back again, O for him, etc. O were some villains hangit high, And ilka body had their ain! Then I might see the joyfu’ sight, 15 My Highlan Harry back again. O for him, etc. SMM no. 209 (1790); Hastie MS, f. 166 lave rest dowie sad, mournful greet weep ‘The oldest title I ever heard to this air, was The Highland Watch’s farewell to Ireland. The chorus I pickt up from an old woman in Dunblane; the rest of the song is mine’ (Notes 42). The air is taken from Ross’s Choice Collection of Scots Reels (1780).

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53 Thickest night, surround my dwelling! Music by Allan Masterton

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Thickest night, surround my dwelling! Howling tempests, o’er me rave! Turbid torrents, wintry swelling, Roaring by my lonely cave. Crystal streamlets gently flowing, 5 Busy haunts of base mankind, Western breezes softly blowing, Suit not my distracted mind. In the cause of Right engaged, Wrongs injurious to redress, 10 Honor’s war we strongly waged,

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But the heavens deny’d success: Ruin’s wheel has driven o’er us, Not a hope that dare attend, The wide world is all before us—15 But a world without a friend! SMM no. 132 (1788), signed B; Hastie MS, ff. 28, 41 This song conveys the supposed thoughts of James Drummond, the eldest son of Viscount Strathallan (a noted Jacobite killed at Culloden), while taking refuge in a cave in the Highlands after the defeat and dispersal of his party. Burns commented, This air is the composition of one of the worthiest and best hearted men living—Allan Masterton, schoolmaster in Edinr. As he and I were both sprouts of Jacobitism, we agreed to dedicate the words and air to that cause. To tell the matter of fact, except when my passions were heated by some accidental cause, my Jacobitism was merely by way of, Vive la bagatelle. (Notes 27) Source of music: SMM no. 132. Music text © David Johnson, 1993. [Bar 4 voice, notes 2–3 originally quavers. Bar 10 keyboard, tie to bar 11 deleted. Bar 12 voice, note 2 originally G, notes 2–3 originally quavers.]

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54 Bonie lassie, will ye go, will ye go, will ye go? Tune: The birks of Abergeldie

CHORUS Bonie lassie, will ye go, Will ye go, will ye go? Bonie lassie, will ye go To the birks of Aberfeldy. Now simmer blinks on flow’ry braes, 5 And o’er the crystal streamlets plays; Come, let us spend the lightsome days In the birks of Aberfeldy. The little birdies blythely sing,

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While o’er their heads the hazels hing; 10 Or lightly flit on wanton wing In the birks of Aberfeldy. The braes ascend like lofty wa’s, The foamy stream deep-roaring fa’s, O’er hung wi’ fragrant-spreading shaws, 15 The birks of Aberfeldy.— The hoary cliffs are crown’d wi’ flowers, White o’er the linns the burnie pours, And rising weets wi’ misty showers The birks of Aberfeldy. 20 Let Fortune’s gifts at random flee, They ne’er shall draw a wish frae me; Supremely blest wi’ love and thee In the birks of Aberfeldy SMM no. 113 (1788), signed B, ‘Written for this Work by R.Burns’ birks birches simmer summer blinks gleams hing hang shaws ‘small woods in hollow places’ (Burns) linns waterfalls burnie stream weets wets The chorus is based on a much older song, ‘Birks of Abergeldie’, which is in the form of a dialogue between lovers:

Bonny lassie, will ye go, Will ye go, will ye go, Bonny lassie, will ye go To the birks o’ Abergeldie? Ye shall get a gown of silk, A gown of silk, a gown of silk, Ye shall get a gown of silk,

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And coat of calimancoe. Na, kind Sir, I dare nae gang, I dare nae gang, I dare nae gang, Na, kind Sir, I dare nae gang, My minnie she’ll be angry. Sair, sair wad she flyte, Wad she flyte, wad she flyte, Sair, sair wad she flyte, And sair wad she ban me. Abergeldie is near Balmoral in Aberdeenshire. Burns’s inspiration, on the other hand, came to him at Aberfeldy in Perthshire, which he visited along with William Nichol on 30 August 1787, while on his first Highland tour. ‘I composed these stanzas’, Burns later explained, ‘standing under the falls of Aberfeldy, at, or near, Moness’ (Notes 26). As a song written on the spot to celebrate the beauty of a particular place in Scotland, ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’ thus fulfils one of the ambitions he had outlined before making his tour in the Highlands. In March 1787 he wrote to Mrs Dunlop, Scottish scenes, and Scottish story are the themes I could wish to sing.—I have no greater, no dearer aim than to have it in my power, unplagu’d with the routine of business, for which Heaven knows I am unfit enough, to make leisurely pilgrimages through Caledonia; to sit on the fields of her battles; to wander on the romantic banks of her rivers; and to muse by the stately tower or venerable ruins, once the honored abodes of her heroes. (Letter 90, Letters I 101) The melody is recorded as Abergeldie as early as a manuscript of 1694. The popularity of Burns’s song inevitably led to the eclipse of ‘Birks of Abergeldie’ in the nineteenth century; but both ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’ and the tripping, spirited original which lay behind it deserve to be known.

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55 Amang the trees where humming bees Tune: The king of France he rade a race

Amang the trees where humming bees At buds and flow’rs were hinging, O. Auld Caledon drew out her drone, And to her pipe was singing, O: ’Twas Pibroch, sang, strathspey, and reels, 5 She dirl’d them aff, fu’ clearly, O, When there cam a yell o’ foreign squeels, That dang her tapsalteerie, O!

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Their capon craws and queer ha ha’s, They made our lugs grow eerie, O. 10 The hungry bike did scrape and pike Till we were wae and weary, O— But a royal ghaist wha aince was cas’d A prisoner aughteen year awa, He fir’d a fiddler in the North 15 That dang them tapsalteerie, O! Cromek, Reliques (1808) hinging hanging dirl’d played vigorously, reeled dang knocked tapsalteerie topsy-turvy craws cock crows lugs ears bike swarm pike pluck wae wretched ghaist ghost cas’d shut up aughteen eighteen Probably written in 1787, as a compliment to Niel Gow, the most famous fiddler of his time, whom Burns met at Dunkeld on 31 August of that year. The fashion for Italian music had produced a strong reaction in favour of ‘Pibroch, sang, strathspey, and reels’. Burns perhaps owes a debt to the second stanza of a Jacobite song, ‘The King of France he rade a race’:

But there cam a fiddler out o’ Fife, A blink beyond Balwearie, O, And he has coft a gully knife To gie the Whigs a bleary, O. The fiddler cam wi’ sword and lance, And a’ his links o’ leary, O. To learn the Whigs a morice dance That they lov’d wondrous deary, O. The ‘royal ghaist’ (l. 13) alludes to James I of Scotland, who was detained as a prisoner in England for nineteen years. He was an accomplished musician and poet.

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The air was published as Lady Doll Sinclair’s Reel in Bremner’s Reels (1757) 1; and as The King of France in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 26.

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56 Streams that glide in orient plains Tune: Morag

Streams that glide in orient plains, Never bound by Winter’s chains; Glowing here on golden sands, There immixed with foulest stains From Tyranny’s empurpled hands: 5 These, their richly gleaming waves, I leave the tyrants and their slaves, Give me the stream that sweetly laves The banks by CASTLE GORDON.

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Torrid forests, ever gay, 10 Shading from the burning ray Hapless wretches sold to toil; Or the ruthless Native’s way, Bent on slaughter, blood and spoil: Woods that ever verdant wave, 15 I leave the tyrant and the slave, Give me the groves that lofty brave The storms, by CASTLE GORDON. Wildly here without control, Nature reigns and rules the whole; 20 In that sober, pensive mood, Dearest to the feeling soul, She plants the forest, pours the flood: Life’s poor day I’ll musing rave, And find at night a sheltering cave, 25 Where waters flow and wild woods wave By bonny CASTLE GORDON. Second commonplace book; Hastie MS, f. 41v Written after Burns’s visit to Castle Gordon on 7 September 1787, and set to the air Morag, which he collected in the Highlands. Cf. note on no. 57 ‘Loud blaw the frosty breezes’.

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57 Loud blaw the frosty breezes Tune: Morag

Loud blaw the frosty breezes, The snaws the mountains cover, Like winter on me seizes, Since my young Highland Rover Far wanders nations over. 5

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CHORUS Where’er he go, where’er he stray, May Heaven be his warden; Return him safe to fair Strathspey, And bonie Castle Gordon. The trees now naked groaning, 10 Shall soon wi’ leaves be hinging, The birdies dowie moaning, Shall a’ be blythely singing, And every flower be springing. CHORUS Sae I’ll rejoice the lee-lang day, 15 When by his mighty Warden My youth’s return’d to fair Strathspey And bonie Castle-Gordon. SMM no. 143 (1788), signed R, ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 30 blaw blow snaws snows dowie dejected lee-lang live-long This song, like ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’, was the product of Burns’s Highland tour with William Nichol. On 7 September 1787 Burns visited the Duchess of Gordon at Castle Gordon, near Fochabers. He was graciously received, and wrote ‘The young Highland Rover’ in honour of a visit paid to Castle Gordon by Bonnie Prince Charlie not long before Culloden. Burns’s travelling companion Nichol was an irascible Edinburgh schoolmaster. On the occasion of the poet’s visit to Castle Gordon, he remained at the village inn and refused to go up to the Castle when Burns came back with an invitation to him. ‘May that obstinate son of Latin Prose’, Burns wrote to the Duke of Gordon’s librarian, ‘be curst to Scotch-mile periods, and damn’d to seven-league paragraphs’ (Letter 145, Letters I 163). The air, Morag, was one of several Burns had collected while travelling. He wrote to Mrs Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock on 17 February 1788, I am assisting a friend in a collection of Scottish songs, set to their proper tunes; every air worth preserving is to be included: among others I have

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given ‘Morag’, and some few Highland airs which pleased me most, a dress which will be more generally known, though far, far inferior in real merit. (Letter 206, Letters I 238–9)

58 In comin by the brig o’ Dye Tune: Ruffian’s rant

In comin by the brig o’ Dye, At Darlet we a blink did tarry; As day was dawin in the sky, We drank a health to bonie Mary. CHORUS Theniel Menzies’ bonie Mary, 5

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Theniel Menzies’ bonie Mary, Charlie Grigor tint his plaidie, Kissin Theniel’s bonie Mary. Her een sae bright, her brow sae white, Her haffet locks as brown’s a berry; 10 And ay they dimpl’t wi’ a smile, The rosy cheeks o’ bonie Mary. Theniel Menzies’, etc. We lap and danc’d the lee-lang day, Till Piper lads were wae and weary; But Charlie gat the spring to pay 15 For kissin Theniel’s bonie Mary. Theniel Menzies’, etc. SMM no. 156 (1788), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 36 brig bridge blink moment, short time dawin dawning tint lost plaidie cloak of tartan or chequered cloth haffet temple lap leapt lee-lang live-long wae sad gat got spring dance, lively tune Burns and Nichol stopped at Stonehaven, near the river Dye, on 10 September 1787, to meet some of Burns’s relatives. This song may be modelled on a bawdy popular song such as ‘Comin’ o’er the hills o’ Coupar’ (MMC). The Strathspey Ruffian’s rant is in Bremner’s Reels (1759) 43.

59 A’ the lads o’ Thornie-bank Tune: Ruffian’s rant

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A’ the lads o’ Thornie-bank When they gae to the shore o’ Bucky, They’ll step in and tak a pint Wi’ Lady Onlie, honest lucky. CHORUS Lady Onlie, honest lucky, 5 Brews gude ale at shore o’ Bucky; I wish her sale for her gude ale, The best on a’ the shore o’ Bucky. Her house sae bien, her curch sae clean,

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I wat she is a dainty Chuckie! 10 And cheary blinks the ingle gleede O’ Lady Onlie, honest lucky. Lady Onlie, etc. SMM no. 156 (1788), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 35 lucky ale-wife bien cosy, comfortable curch kerchief wat know chuckie dear, sweetheart ingle gleede hearthside glowing fire Burns passed through the fishing village of Buckie on 7 September 1787. This is probably a revised version of a song he collected while touring the Highlands. On the air, see no. 58 ‘In comin by the brig o’ Dye’.

60 Blythe, Blythe and merry was she Tune: Andro and his cutty gun

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CHORUS Blythe, Blythe and merry was she, Blythe was she but and ben; Blythe by the banks of Ern, And blythe in Glenturit glen. By Oughtertyre grows the aik, 5 On Yarrow banks the birken shaw; But Phemie was a bonier lass Than braes o’ Yarrow ever saw. Blythe, Blythe, etc. Her looks were like a flow’r in May, Her smile was like a simmer morn; 10 She tripped by the banks of Ern, As light’s a bird upon a thorn. Blythe, Blythe, etc. Her bony face it was as meek

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As ony lamb upon a lee; The evening sun was ne’er sae sweet 15 As was the blink o’ Phemie’s e’e. Blythe, Blythe, etc. The Highland hills I’ve wander’d wide And o’er the Lawlands I hae been; But Phemie was the blythest lass That ever trode the dewy green. 20 Blythe, Blythe, etc. SMM no.180 (1788), signed B, ‘Written by R.Burns’ aik oak birken shaw birch woods but and ben outside and within simmer summer lee pasture blink glance lawlands lowlands ‘Blythe, blythe and merry’ belongs to the autumn of 1787, a year in which Burns had travelled both in the Borders and much further north. The song reflects his journeys in its first and last verses; he is able to make comparisons drawn from experience:

By Oughtertyre grows the aik, On Yarrow banks the birken shaw… The Highland hills I’ve wander’d wide, And o’er the Lawlands I hae been. Burns met Sir William Murray of Ochtertyre at Blair Atholl during his Highland tour in September 1787, and a few weeks later accepted an invitation to visit Murray at his home in Strathearn. He wrote about this song, I composed these verses while I stayed at Ochtertyre with Sir Wm Murray. The lady, who was also at Ochtertyre at the same time, was the wellknown toast, Miss Euphemia Murray of Lentrose, who was called, and very justly, The Flower of Strathmore. (Notes 35) Apparently, however, the spirited Euphemia Murray did not appreciate being named in Burns’s song. She later married a Mr Smythe of Methven Castle, who became one of the Judges of the Court of Session.

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The air, Andro an’ his cutty gun, was printed in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754). It was well known as the tune of a drinking-song, included along with Burns’s song in SMM:

Blythe, blythe, blythe was she, Blythe was she butt and ben; And well she loo’d a Hawick gill And leugh to see a tappit hen. She took me in, she set me down, She hecht to keep me lawin-free; But, wylie Carlin that she was, She gart me birle my bawbie.

61 My Peggy’s face, my Peggy’s form Tune: My Peggy’s face

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My Peggy’s face, my Peggy’s form, The frost of hermit age might warm; My Peggy’s worth, my Peggy’s mind, Might charm the first of human kind. I love my Peggy’s angel air, 5 Her face so truly heav’nly fair, Her native grace so void of art, But I adore my Peggy’s heart. The lily’s hue, the rose’s die, The kindling lustre of an eye; 10 Who but owns their magic sway, Who but knows they all decay! The tender thrill, the pitying tear,

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The generous purpose nobly dear, The gentle look that Rage disarms, 15 These are all Immortal charms. SMM no. 501 (1803), ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 40 This is the first song in the final volume of SMM, where it is accompanied by a letter from Burns to Johnson: I hope against I return, you will be able to tell me from Mr. CLARKE if these words will suit the tune.—If they don’t suit, I must think on some other Air, as I have a very strong private reason for wishing them in the 2d volume. (Letter 151, Letters I 173) Burns’s ‘private reason’ was his admiration for Margaret (Peggy) Chalmers, a cousin and friend of his Mauchline friend Gavin Hamilton’s sister Charlotte, whom he had probably met in Edinburgh early in 1787. Burns sent her this song, along with no. 182 ‘Where braving angry Winter’s storms’ in November 1787. When she protested against publication, he assured her, The poetic compliments I pay cannot be misunderstood. They are neither of them so particular as to point you out to the world at large; and the circle of your acquaintances will allow all I have said. Besides, I have complimented you chiefly, almost solely, on your mental charms. (Letter 150, Letters I 171) At her insistence, ‘My Peggy’s face, my Peggy’s form’ did not appear in the 1788 volume, although ‘Where braving angry Winter’s storms’ did. Peggy Chalmers told the poet Campbell that she refused a proposal of marriage from Burns. Burns proposed to Johnson an ‘old Highland air’, Ha a’ chaillich, subject to the advice of the musician Stephen Clarke. The tune printed in the SMM was probably chosen by Clarke.

62 Where braving angry winter’s storms Tune: Niel Gow’s Lamentation for Abercairney

The songs of Robert burns

Where braving angry winter’s storms, The lofty Ochils rise, Far in their shade, my Peggy’s charms First blest my wondering eyes; As one who by some savage stream 5 A lonely gem surveys, Astonish’d doubly marks it beam, With art’s most polish’d blaze. Blest be the wild, sequester’d glade And blest the day and hour, 10 Where Peggy’s charms I first survey’d, When first I felt their pow’r. The tyrant Death with grim controul

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May seize my fleeting breath, But tearing Peggy from my soul 15 Must be a stronger death. SMM no. 195 (1788), signed R, ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 39 This song was sent to Peggy Chalmers in November 1787 along with no. 61 ‘My Peggy’s face, my Peggy’s form’. Burns wrote to her, Shall I be plain with you? I will; so look to it. Personal attractions, madam, you have much above par; wit, understanding, and worth, you possess in the first class. This is a cursed flat way of telling you these truths, but let me hear no more of your sheepish timidity… ‘Where braving all the winter’s harmes’ [sic] is already set—the tune is Neil Gow’s Lamentation for Abercairny’. (Letter 150, Letters I 171) Niel Gow’s Lamentation for Abercairney is in Gow’s Collection of Strathspey Reels (1788).

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63 How pleasant the banks of the clear-winding Devon Tune: Bhannerach dhon na chri

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How pleasant the banks of the clear-winding Devon, With green spreading bushes and flow’rs blooming fair! But the boniest flow’r on the banks of the Devon Was once a sweet bud on the braes of the Ayr. Mild be the sun on this sweet blushing flower, 5 In the gay, rosy morn, as it bathes in the dew! And gentle the fall of the soft vernal shower, That steals on the evening each leaf to renew! O spare the dear blossom, ye orient breezes, With chill, hoary wing as ye usher the dawn! 10 And far be thou distant, thou reptile that seizest The verdure and pride of the garden or lawn! Let Bourbon exult in his gay, gilded Lillies, And England triumphant display her proud Rose; A fairer than either adorns the green vallies 15 Where Devon, sweet Devon, meandering flows. SMM no. 157 (1788), signed B, ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 37 Burns comments, These verses were composed on a charming girl, a Miss Charlotte Hamilton, who is now married to Jas McKitrick Adair, Esquire, Physician. She is sister to my worthy friend Gavin Hamilton, of Mauchline; and was born on the banks of Ayr, but was, at the time I wrote these lines, residing at Herveyston, in Clackmannan Shire, on the romantic banks of the little river Devon. I first heard the air from a lady in Inverness, and got the notes taken down for this work. (Notes 29) He had written to Margaret Chalmers in October 1787, I am determined to pay Charlotte a poetic compliment, if I could hit on some glorious old Scotch air, in number second [of the SMM]… I intend to make it description of some kind: the whining cant of love, except in real passion, and by a masterly hand, is to me as insufferable as…preaching cant. (Letter 145A, Letters I 164–5) When he completed the song a few weeks later, he wrote to the same correspondent, mentioning the ‘true old Highland’ tune:

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Talking of Charlotte, I must tell you that I have to the best of my power, paid her a poetic compliment, now compleated. The air is admirable: true old Highland. It was the tune of a Gaelic song which an Inverness lady sung me when I was there; and I was so charmed with it that I begged her to write me a set of it from her singing; for it had never been set before. I am fixed that it shall go in Johnson’s next number; so Charlotte and you need not spend your precious time in contradicting me. I won’t say the poetry is first-rate; though I am convinced it is very well: and, what is not always the case with compliments to ladies, it is not only sincere but just. (Letter 155, Letters I 179) Dick points out that another, but different rudimentary melody of the same title, Bhannerach dhon na chri, had been printed in McDonald’s Highland Airs (1784), no. 105.

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64 Ca’ the yowes to the knowes Tune: Ca’ the yowes

Burns wrote in the Interleaved Museum, ‘This beautiful song is in the true old Scotch taste, and I do not know that ever either air or words, were in print before’ (Notes 49). In a letter of September 1794 to George Thomson—to whom he gave a different song with the same title and chorus [no. 260 ‘Ca’ the yowes to the knowes’]—he supplied its background history: I am flattered at your adopting, ‘Ca’ the yowes to the knowes,’ as it was owing to me that ever it saw the light.—About seven years ago, I was well acquainted with a worthy little fellow of a Clergyman, a Mr Clunzie, who sung it charmingly; and at my request, Mr Clarke took it down from his singing.—When I gave it to Johnson, I added some Stanzas to the song and mended others… (Letter 636, Letters II 305–6) ‘Mr Clarke’ was Burns’s musical associate in the SMM venture, the Edinburgh church organist Stephen Clarke, and the singer was the Rev. John Clunie (1757–1819), until 1790 schoolmaster and precentor at Markinch in Fife. Burns has completely recast a traditional song, expanding the first stanza into two, making several changes in what follows, and adding a fine last stanza of his own. (Stenhouse prints the traditional song at 248–9.) The manuscript of this song is in the B.L., with the opening bars of the tune.

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CHORUS Ca’ the yowes to the knowes, Ca’ them whare the heather grows, Ca’ them whare the burnie rowes, My bonie dearie. As I gaed down the water-side, 5 There I met my shepherd-lad, He row’d me sweetly in his plaid, And he ca’d me his dearie. Ca’ the yowes, etc. Will ye gang down the water-side And see the waves sae sweetly glide 10 Beneath the hazels spreading wide, The moon it shines fu’ clearly. Ca’ the yowes, etc. I was bred up at nae sic school, My shepherd-lad, to play the fool, And a’ the day to sit in dool, 15 And nae body to see me. Ca’ the yowes, etc. Ye shall get gowns and ribbons meet, Cauf-leather shoon upon your feet, And in my arms ye’se lie and sleep, And ye sall be my dearie. 20 Ca’ the yowes, etc. If ye’ll but stand to what ye’ve said, I’se gang wi’ you, my shepherd-lad, And ye may rowe me in your plaid, And I sall be your dearie. Ca’ the yowes, etc. While waters wimple to the sea; 25 While day blinks in the lift sae hie,

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Till clay-cauld death sall blin’ my e’e, Ye sall be my dearie. Ca’ the yowes, etc. SMM no. 264 (1790); Hastie MS, f. 56 yowes ewes knowes mounds burnie rowes stream runs row’d wrapped fu’ full, very dool misery sall shall cauf-leather shoon calf-leather shoes ye’se you shall wimple meander blinks in the lift sae hie shines in the sky so high

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65 My heart is wae, and unco wae Tune: Mary’s dream

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My heart is wae, and unco wae, To think upon the raging sea, That roars between her gardens green And th’ bonie Lass of Albanie. This lovely maid’s of noble blood, 5 That rulèd Albion’s kingdoms three; But O’ alas! for her bonie face! They’ve wrang’d the Lass of Albanie. In the rolling tide of spreading Clyde There sits an isle of high degree; 10 And a town of fame whose princely name Should grace the Lass of Albanie. But there is a youth, a witless youth, That fills the place where she should be, We’ll send him o’er to his native shore, 15 And bring our ain sweet Albanie. Alas the day, and woe the day, A false Usurper wan the gree, That now commands the towers and lands, The royal right of Albanie. 20 We’ll daily pray, we’ll nightly pray, On bended knees most ferventlie, That the time may come, with pipe and drum, We’ll welcome home fair Albanie. Second commonplace book wae sad wrang’d wronged wan the gree came off best One of Burns’s pro-Jacobite songs, written in honour of Charlotte, daughter of Prince Charles Edward and his mistress Clementina Walkinshaw. Charlotte took the style of Duchess of Albany on 6 December 1787. Charles Edward Stuart died on 31 January 1788. The ‘witless youth’ (l. 13) is the Prince of Wales, later George IV.

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The air Mary’s dream is printed in the Perth Musical Miscellany (1786) no. 96, and in SMM no. 37 (1787).

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66 The heather was blooming, the meadows were mawn Tune: The tailor’s march

The heather was blooming, the meadows were mawn, Our lads gaed a-hunting, ae day at the dawn,

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O’er moors and o’er mosses and mony a glen, At length they discovered a bonie moor-hen. CHORUS I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men! 5 I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men! Take some on the wing, and some as they spring, But cannily steal on a bonie moor-hen. Sweet brushing the dew from the brown heather bells, Her colors betray’d her on yon mossy fells; 10 Her plumage outlustred the pride o’ the spring, And O! as she wantoned gay on the wing. Auld Phoebus himsel, as he peep’d o’er the hill; In spite at her plumage he tryed his skill; He levell’d his rays where she bask’d on the brae—15 His rays were outshone, and but mark’d where she lay. They hunted the valley, they hunted the hill; The best of our lads wi’ the best o’ their skill; But still as the fairest she sat in their sight, Then, whirr! she was over, a mile at a flight. 20 Cromek, Reliques (1808) mawn mow rede advise cannily cautiously Written about the end of 1787, and seen by Clarinda, who urged Burns to suppress it. ‘Do not publish the “Moor-hen”: do not for your sake, and for mine’ (Scott Douglas, V. 77). As Kinsley notes, the hunting metaphor in the song is obviously sexual, but the text as it stands does not go far enough to justify even Clarinda’s anxiety. Cromek printed the song with asterisks after line 20; it may well be incomplete. The air, also used for no. 126 ‘The Taylor fell thro’ the bed, thimble an a”, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) XI no. 28, Aird, Airs (1782) I no. 173 and SMM no. 212 (1790).

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67 Anna, thy charms my bosom fire Tune: Bonny Mary

Anna, thy charms my bosom fire, And press my soul with care; But ah! how bootless to admire, When fated to despair! Yet in thy presence, lovely Fair, 5

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To hope may be forgiven; For sure ‘twere impious to despair So much in sight of Heaven. SMM no. 530 (1803) Sent to Mrs Dunlop on 12 February 1788 from Edinburgh, as ‘a jeu d’esprit of t’other day, on a despairing Lover carrying me to see his Dulcinea’. (Letter 198, Letters 1229). The lady was Anne Stewart, daughter of John Stewart of East Craigs, who jilted Burns’s friend Alexander Cunningham, to whom she was engaged, for Forrest Dewar, an Edinburgh surgeon. A year later, Burns sent the verses to be published in the London Star, commenting to Cunningham, ‘Had the Lady kept her character, she should have kept my verses; but as she prostituted the one, I no longer made anything of the other; so sent them to Stuart [the editor of the Star]’ (Letter 336, ibid., 405).

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68 My heart was ance as blythe and free Tune: To the weaver’s gin ye go

My heart was ance as blythe and free As simmer days were lang; But a bonie, westlin weaver lad Has gart me change my sang. CHORUS To the weaver’s gin ye go, fair maids, 5 To the weaver’s gin ye go, I rede you right, gang ne’er at night, To the weaver’s gin ye go. My mither sent me to the town

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To warp a plaiden wab; 10 But the weary, weary warpin o’t Has gart me sigh and sab. To the weaver’s, etc. A bonie, westlin weaver lad Sat working at his loom; He took my heart as wi’ a net 15 In every knot and thrum. To the weaver’s, etc. I sat beside my warpin-wheel, And ay I ca’d it roun’; But every shot and every knock, My heart it gae a stoun. 20 To the weaver’s, etc. The moon was sinking in the west Wi’ visage pale and wan, As my bonie, westlin weaver lad Convoy’d me thro’ the glen. To the weaver’s, etc. But what was said, or what was done, 25 Shame fa’ me gin I tell; But Oh! I fear the kintra soon Will ken as weel’s myself! To the weaver’s, etc. SMM no. 103 (1788), signed X simmer summer westlin west country gin if rede advise mither mother warp weave plaiden wab woven fabric with check or tartan pattern sab sob thrum end of warp-thread left unwoven on the loom ca’d drove

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roun’ round shot single movement of the shuttle stoun thrill of pleasure convoy’d escorted fa’ fall upon kintra countryside Burns comments, The chorus of this song is old, the rest of it is mine. Here, once for all, let me apologise for many silly compositions of mine in this work. Many beautiful airs wanted words; in the hurry of other avocations, if I could string a parcel of rhymes together anything near tolerable, I was fain to let them pass. He must be an excellent poet indeed, whose every performance is excellent. R.B. (Notes 24) It was usual in rural communities in late eighteenth-century Scotland for homespun yarn to be taken to the weaver to be woven into cloth. Burns accurately describes the weaving process (‘a weaver lad sat working at his loom… I sat beside my warpin wheel, And ay I ca’d it roun’); but more than this, he matches the girl’s confession of how she was attracted by the weaver to the imagery of weaving itself, and subtly exploits the contrasting melody line of verse and chorus to convey both her delight and her regret. The tune To the weaver’s gin ye go is in Aird’s Airs (1782) II no. 16. As Dick notes, it has ‘considerable variety; the chorus starts in a merry strain, but gets back to the halfquerulous mood of the verse, and ends in the minor’ (Dick 357).

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69 I am my mammy’s ae bairn Tune: I’m o’er young to marry yet

I am my mammy’s ae bairn, Wi’ unco folk I weary, Sir, And lying in a man’s bed, I’m fley’d it mak me eerie, Sir. CHORUS I’m o’er young, I’m o’er young, 5 I’m o’er young to marry yet! I’m o’er young, ‘twad be a sin To tak me frae my mammy yet. Hallowmass is come and gane, The nights are lang in winter, Sir; 10

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And you an’ I in ae bed, In trowth, I dare na venture, Sir. I’m o’er young, etc. Fu’ loud and shill the frosty wind Blaws thro’ the leafless timmer, Sir; But if ye come this gate again, 15 I’ll aulder be gin simmer, Sir. I’m o’er young, etc. SMM no. 107 (1788), signed Z ae bairn only child fley’d frightened eerie melancholy ‘twad it would Hallowmass festival of All Saints gane gone lang long in trowth truly shill shrill blaws blows timmer wood gate way aulder older gin before, by time of simmer summer Burns was modest about this song, as about many others, writing in the Interleaved Museum, ‘The chorus of this song is old; the rest of it, such as it is, is mine’ (Notes 25). The idea of a girl too young for marriage may have been suggested by a song in David Herd’s collection which includes the verse,

I am gaun to court a wife, And I’ll love her as my life; But she is a young thing, And new come frae her minnie. ‘I’m o’er young to marry yet’ is modelled on a type of folksong with a tradition stretching back to the medieval pastourelle dialogue. There is, for example, a French song of the fifteenth century which begins, ‘Je suis trop jeunnette, Pour faire ung amy’.

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The secret of Burns’s success lies in the way he has suited natural sounding words to the cheerful tune. The turn in the final stanza, where the girl changes from reluctance to coquettish readiness to wed, is characteristic of this kind of country song. A variant of the tune occurs in Bremner’s Reels (1758) 28.

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70 Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong Tune: McPherson’s Farewell

Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong, The wretch’s destinie! McPherson’s time will not be long, On yonder gallows tree. CHORUS Sae rantingly, sae wantonly, 5 Sae dauntingly gae’d he, He play’d a spring, and danc’d it round Below the gallows tree. O what is death but parting breath? On many a bloody plain 10 I’ve dar’d his face, and in this place

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I scorn him yet again! Sae rantingly, etc. Untie these bands from off my hands, And bring to me my sword; And there’s no a man in all Scotland, 15 But I’ll brave him at a word. Sae rantingly, etc. I’ve liv’d a life of sturt and strife; I die by treacherie: It burns my heart I must depart And not avenged be. 20 Sae rantingly, etc. Now farewell, light, thou sunshine bright, And all beneath the sky! May coward shame distain his name, The wretch that dares not die! Sae rantingly, etc. SMM no. 114 (1788), signed ‘Z’ ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 26 rantingly riotously gae’d went sturt trouble Burns wrote to George Thomson in October 1794, ‘“McPherson’s Farewel,” is mine, excepting the chorus, & one stanza’. (Letter 644, Letters II 317). James Macpherson, the son of a gentleman and of a gipsy, led a notorious gang of cattle-thieves in the province of Moray in the late seventeenth century. On 7 November 1700 he and three of his henchmen, including one Gordon, were brought before the Sheriff of Banffshire and charged with being Egyptian [gipsy] rogues and vagabonds, of keeping the markets in their ordinary manner of thieving and purse-cutting, also, being guilty of masterful bangstrie [violence] and oppression. Macpherson and Gordon were sentenced to be hanged at the Market Cross in Banff next market day. According to tradition, Macpherson, who was an accomplished fiddler, spent his last hours in writing verses and composing a tune for them; as he walked from the

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prison to the place of execution, he played his ‘lament or farewell’ on the fiddle. At the gallows, he is supposed to have offered his fiddle to anyone who would accept it, and then, since nobody stepped forward, to have broken it over his knee and thrown the pieces to the crowd. The original ballad from which Burns created his song was printed as a broadside not long after Macpherson’s death as ‘Macpherson’s rant; or the last words of James Mcpherson, murderer. To its own proper tune’. It consists of eleven eight-line stanzas, and like most broadside ballads purporting to give the ‘lastwords’ of a criminal, is confessional and crudely moralistic. The first stanza is typical of what follows:

I spent my time in rioting, Debauch’d my health and strength; I pillag’d, plunder’d, murdered, But now, alas! at length I’m brought to punishment condign; Pale death draws near to me, The end I never did project To die upon a tree. Burns, in contrast, places the emphasis on Macpherson’s boldness and defiance, putting no apology in his mouth. His Macpherson ‘dies like a man’. Carlyle commented on this ‘wild stormful song’, ‘who except Burns, could have given words to such a soul, words that we never listen to without a strange barbarous, half poetic feeling’ (Donald A.Low, ed., Robert Burns: The Critical Heritage (London 1974) 366). The air is in Margaret Sinkler’s MS (1710), in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) VII no. 14, and in other collections.

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Songs and notes

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71 Stay, my charmer, can you leave me? Tune: An gille dubh ciar dubh

Stay, my charmer, can you leave me? Cruel, cruel to deceive me! Well you know how much you grieve me: Cruel charmer, can you go? Cruel charmer, can you go? 5 By my love so ill requited; By the faith you fondly plighted; By the pangs of lovers slighted; Do not, do not leave me so! Do not, do not leave me so! 10 SMM no. 129 (1788), signed B; Hastie MS, f. 27 This song seems to owe something to a fragment collected by David Herd (Herd’s Manuscripts) 185:

Can ye leave me so, ladie,

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Can ye leave me so? Can ye leave me comfortless, And take anither joe? The Gaelic air, published in Patrick MacDonald’s Collection of Highland Vocal Airs (1784), may have been brought to Burns’s notice during his Highland tour.

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72 What will I do gin my Hoggie die? Tune: What will I do, etc.

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What will I do gin my Hoggie die? My joy, my pride, my Hoggie! My only beast, I had nae mae, And vow but I was vogie! The lee-lang night we watch’d the fauld, 5 Me and my faithfu’ doggie; We heard nocht but the roaring linn Amang the braes sae scroggie. But the houlet cry’d frae the Castle-wa’, The blitter frae the boggie, 10 The tod reply’d upon the hill, I trembled for my Hoggie. When day did daw and cocks did craw, The morning it was foggie; An unco tyke lap o’er the dyke 15 And maist has kill’d my Hoggie. SMM no. 133 (1788); Hastie MS, f. 29 gin if Hoggie young sheep (between weaning and shearing) nae mae no more vogie vain lee-lang live-long

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fauld sheep fold linn waterfall scroggie covered with stunted bushes houlet owl blitter snipe boggie bog, marsh tod fox daw dawn craw crow tyke cur lap leapt maist almost Probably largely traditional, revised by Burns. Robert Riddell was informed by Dr Walker, minister of Moffat, that the air was collected ‘a few years ago…at a hamlet…called Moss Plat’ by some riders in Liddesdale, Their source was an old woman who said she had learnt it in childhood (Notes 65). It is included in McGlashan’s Scots Measures (1781).

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73 Her Daddie forbad, her Minnie forbad Tune: Jumpin John

Her Daddie forbad, her Minnie forbad; Forbidden she wadna be: She wadna trow’t the browst she brew’d Wad taste sae bitterlie!

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CHORUS The lang lad they ca’ Jumpin John 5 Beguil’d the bonie lassie! The lang lad they ca’ Jumpin John Beguil’d the bonie lassie! A cow and a cauf, a yowe and a hauf, And thretty gude shillins and three; 10 A vera gude tocher, a cotter-man’s dochter, The lass wi’ the bonie black e’e. The lang lad, etc. SMM no. 138 (1788) wadna would not trow’t believe it browst brew, mischief cauf calf yowe ewe hauf half thretty thirty vera very tocher dowry cotter-man’s dochter cottager’s daughter William Stenhouse states that this is a ‘fragment of an old humorous ballad, with some verbal corrections’ (Stenhouse (1853) 129); but the ballad he refers to has not been traced. In the absence of other evidence, it seems natural to think of ‘Jumpin John’ as Burns’s patchwork, consisting partly of lines and phrases which he inherited, but in its entirety standing as his own deftly cheerful song. The first stanza is adapted from ‘My Daddy forbade’, a song about separated lovers popular in the second half of the eighteenth century:

Though my daddy forbade, and my minny forbade, Forbidden I will not be; For since thou alone my favour hast won, Nane else shall e’er get it for me. The tune was originally English, and provided the chorus to the song of the 1688 Revolution, Lilliburlero. It is given as Jumpin Joan in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1758). The nineteenth-century bagpipe march The Cock of the North owes something to it.

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74 Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west Tune: Up in the morning early

Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west, The drift is driving sairly, Sae loud and shill’s I hear the blast— I’m sure it’s winter fairly.

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CHORUS Up in the morning’s no for me, 5 Up in the morning early! When a’ the hills are cover d wi’ snaw, I’m sure it’s winter fairly! The birds sit chittering in the thorn, A’ day they fare but sparely; 10 And lang’s the night frae e’en to morn, I’m sure it’s winter fairly. Up in the morning’s, etc. SMM no. 140 (1788), signed Z blaws blows drift falling snow driven by the wind sairly sorely, hard shill shrill fairly indeed snaw snow chittering trembling e’en evening ‘The chorus of this is old’, writes Burns, ‘the two stanzas are mine’ (Notes 28). The air is seventeenth-century English, Stingo, or the Oyl of Barley; but it had come to be described as a Scots air, Cold and Raw. It occurs in the Caledonian Pocket Companion, 1759, as Up in the morning early. The ‘old’ chorus came from this popular Scottish song:

Up i’ the morning, up i’ the morning, Up i’ the morning early, Up i’ the morning’s no for me, And I canna get up so early!

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75 Hey, the Dusty Miller Tune: Dusty miller

Hey, the Dusty Miller And his dusty coat; He will win a shilling Or he spend a groat: Dusty was the coat, 5 Dusty was the colour, Dusty was the kiss That I gat frae the Miller. Hey, the Dusty Miller, And his dusty sack; 10 Leeze me on the calling Fills the dusty peck:

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Fills the dusty peck, Brings the dusty siller: I wad gie my coatie 15 For the Dusty Miller. SMM no. 144 (1788); Hastie MS, f. 31 groat silver coin of small value, 3d. Scots leeze me on I am delighted by peck 2-gallon measure Burns based this song on an already popular version in David Herd’s collection:

O the dusty miller, O the dusty miller, Dusty was his coat, dusty was his colour, Dusty was the kiss I got frae the miller! O the dusty miller with the dusty coat, He will spend a shilling ere he win a groat! O the dusty, etc. (Hecht, p. 142) See also the Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes (1951) 307–8. The air, which is in origin English rather than Scots, was well known in Scotland throughout the eighteenth century.

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76 There was a lass, they ca’d her Meg Tune: Ye’ll ay be welcome back again

This song is based on a bawdy song to the same air in the MMC:

There was a lass, they ca’d her Meg, An’ she gaed o’er the muir to spin; She feed a lad to lift her leg, They ca’d him Duncan Davidson. Fal, lal, etc. In the Journal of his Border tour in 1787, Burns includes a fragment of a song which begins

Tune: Duncan Davison There was a lass they ca’d her Meg The brawest lass in a’ the town

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And mony a lad her love did beg Thro’ a’ the country round and round. (Robert Burns’s Tour of the Borders 5 May-1 June 1787, ed. Raymond Lamont Brown (Ipswich, 1972) 27) In Bremner’s Reels (1758) Duncan Davison is entitled Ye’ll ay be welcome back again. This association may have suggested to Burns his closing lines, which are adapted from a fragment in Herd’s manuscripts, ‘I can drink and no be drunk… And ay be welcome back again’ (Hecht, 183).

There was a lass, they ca’d her Meg, And she held o’er the moors to spin; There was a lad that follow’d her, They ca’d him Duncan Davison. The moor was driegh, and Meg was skeigh, 5 Her favour Duncan could na win; For wi’ the rock she wad him knock, And ay she shook the temper-pin. As o’er the moor they lightly foor, A burn was clear, a glen was green, 10 Upon the banks they eas’d their shanks, And ay she set the wheel between: But Duncan swoor a haly aith That Meg should be a bride the morn, Then Meg took up her spinnin-graith, 15 And flang them a out o’er the burn. We will big a wee, wee house, And we will live like king and queen; Sae blythe and merry’s we will be, When ye set by the wheel at e’en. 20 A man may drink and no be drunk, A man may fight and no be slain: A man may kiss a bony lass, And ay be welcome back again. SMM no. 149 (1788), signed Z

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ca’d called driegh dreary skeigh ‘mettlesome, fiery, proud’ (Burns) rock distaff temper-pin screw for regulating the movement of the spinning-wheel foor went shanks lower legs swoor swore haily aith holy oath -graith equipment flang flung big build set by put aside

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77 O that I were where Helen lies Tune: Where Helen lies

Burns’s version of a famous traditional tragic ballad. Thomas Pennant noted in A Tour in Scotland (1774): In the burying-ground of Kirkonnel is the grave of the fair Ellen Irvine, and that of her lover: she was the daughter of the house of Kirkonnel; and was beloved by two gentlemen at the same time; the one vowed to sacrifice the succesful rival to his resentment; and watched an opportunity while the happy pair were sitting on the banks of the Kirtle…. Ellen…fondly thinking to save her favorite, interposed; and receiving the wound intended for [him], fell and expired in his arms. He instantly revenged her death; then fled into Spain, and served for some time against the infidels: on his return he visited the grave…and expiring on the spot, was interred by her side…the tombstone, with his hic jacet Adam Fleming [is] the only memorial of this unhappy gentleman, except an antient ballad of no great merit. Pinkerton printed the ballad ‘from Tradition’ in Select Scotish Ballads (1783). ‘The old Ballad’, Burns wrote to Thomson in 1793, ‘is silly, to contemptibility.—My alteration of it, in Johnson, is not much better.—Mr Pinkerton, in what he calls ancient ballds…has the best set.—It is full of his own interpolations, but no matter’ (Letter 569, Letters II 220–

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1). Other versions which are broadly similar to Burns’s were published by Joseph Ritson, and by Scott in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. The earliest form of the tune is in the Blaikie MS of 1692.

O that I were where Helen lies! Night and day on me she cries; O that I were where Helen lies In fair Kirkconnel lee. O Helen fair beyond compare, 5 A ringlet of thy flowing hair, I’ll wear it still for ever mair Untill the day I die. Curs’d be the hand that shot the shot, And curs’d the gun that gave the crack! 10 Into my arms bird Helen lap, And died for sake o’ me. O think na ye but my heart was sair; My Love fell down and spake nae mair; There did she swoon wi’ meikle care 15 On fair Kirkconnel lee. I lighted down, my sword did draw, I cutted him in pieces sma’; I cutted him in pieces sma’ On fair Kirkconnel lee. 20 O Helen chaste, thou’rt now at rest, If I were with thee I were blest, Where thou lies low and takes thy rest On fair Kirkconnel lee. I wish my grave was growing green, 25 A winding sheet put o’er my e’en, And I in Helen’s arms lying In fair Kirkconnel lee! I wish I were where Helen lies! Night and day on me she cries: 30 O that I were where Helen lies On fair Kirkconnel lee.

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SMM no. 155 (1788); Hastie MS, f. 34 lee part of the outfield, pasture lap leapt sair sore

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78 Weary fa’ you, Duncan Gray Tune: Duncan Gray

Weary fa’ you, Duncan Gray! Ha, ha, the girdin o’t! Wae gae by you, Duncan Gray! Ha, ha, the girdin o’t! When a’ the lave gae to their play, 5 Then I maun sit the lee-lang day, And jeeg the cradle wi’ my tae, And a’ for the girdin o’t! Bonie was the lammas moon, Ha, etc. 10 Glowrin a’ the hills aboon, Ha, etc.

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The girdin brak, the beast cam down, I tint my curch and baith my shoon, And Duncan ye’re an unco loon; 15 Wae on the bad girdin o’t. But Duncan gin ye’ll keep your aith, Ha, etc. I’se bless you wi’ my hindmost breath, Ha, etc. 20 Duncan gin ye’ll keep your aith, The beat again can bear us baith, And auld Mess John will mend the skaith And clout the bad girdin o’t. SMM no. 160 (1788), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 38 fa’ befall girdin girthing (of a horse), copulating o’t of it wae gae woe go lave rest lee-lang live-long jeeg rock tae toe lammas harvest brak broke tint lost curch kerchief shoon shoes ye you unco loon strange rascal gin if aith oath baith both Mess John the minister skaith damage clout patch Original words by Burns based on a traditional song in the Herd MSS (Hecht, 112–14), included also in MMC. Like Green grow the Rashes O and John Anderson my jo, John, an example of a lively tune with bawdy associations which acquired non-bawdy words when Burns was in the mood for polite song-writing (cf. no. 222 ‘Duncan Gray cam here to woo’).

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79 The Ploughman he’s a bony lad Tune: The Ploughman

This is a reworking by Burns of a song—no doubt very popular because of its air— included in David Herd’s Scottish Songs. Burns’s version keeps the title and chorus, and his second and third stanzas owe much to the earlier words. A bawdy version of ‘The Ploughman’ is included in MMC. The tune, The Ploughman, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752); in Bremner’s Reels (1761); and in a number of other eighteenth-century collections.

The Ploughman he’s a bony lad, His mind is ever true, jo! His garters knit below his knee, His bonnet it is blue, jo! CHORUS Then up wi’t a’ my Ploughman lad, 5 And hey, my merry Ploughman; Of a’ the trades that I do ken, Commend me to the Ploughman. My Ploughman he comes hame at e’en, He’s aften wat and weary: 10 Cast off the wat, put on the dry, And gae to bed, my Dearie.

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Then up wi’t a’, etc. I will wash my Ploughman’s hose, And I will dress his o’erlay; I will mak my Ploughman’s bed, 15 And chear him late and early, Then up wi’t a’, etc. I hae been east, I hae been west, I hae been at Saint Johnston, The boniest sight that e’er I saw Was th’ Ploughman laddie dancin. 20 Then up wi’t a’, etc. Snaw-white stockins on his legs, And siller buckles glancin; A gude blue bannet on his head, And O but he was handsome! Then up wi’t a’, etc. Commend me to the Barn yard, 25 And the Corn-mou, man; I never gat my Coggie fou Till I met wi’ the Ploughman. Then up wi’t a’, etc. SMM no. 165 (1788) jo sweetheart wi’t with it hame home e’en evening aften often wat wet o’erlay necktie Saint Johnston Perth snaw snow siller silver bannet bonnet Corn-mou stack of corn gat got

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80 Landlady, count the lawin Tune: Hey tutti, taiti

Landlady, count the lawin, The day is near the dawin; Ye’re a’ blind drunk, boys, And I’m but jolly fou. CHORUS Hey tutti, taiti, How tutti taiti, 5 Hey tutti, taiti, wha’s fou now? Cog an ye were ay fou, Cog an ye were ay fou, I wad sit and sing to you, If ye were ay fou. 10

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Hey tutti, etc. Weel may we a’ be! Ill may we never see! God bless the king And the companie. Hey tutti, etc. SMM no. 170 (1788); Hastie MS, f. 40 lawin bill, reckoning dawin dawn fou intoxicated cog drinking vessel, cup an if Burns made use of traditional fragments in writing this cheerful drinking song. The song is simple, and its sentences are short, imitating those of a reveller. On the same page of the Museum, Johnson prints a Jacobite song of the early eighteenth century. This has a defiant drinking chorus, and includes a stanza with the words ‘tuttie taitie’.

When you hear the trumpet sounds Tutti taiti to the drum; Up your swords, and down your guns, And to the louns again. The Jacobite tradition may possibly influence Burns’s last verse. ‘God bless the king…’ can obviously be taken as a loyal toast to George III, but on the other hand it might equally be sung in honour of ‘the king across the water’. It may be significant that the second verse of ‘Landlady count the lawin’ anticipates a verse in one of Burns’s bestknown Jacobite songs, ‘Carl an the king come’ (no. 139):

Coggie, an the king come, Coggie, an the king come, I’se be fou and thou’se be toom, Coggie an the king come. The tune had been printed in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751) III no. 13. Burns was to use it again when he came to write ‘Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace bled’ (no. 246).

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81 Raving winds around her blowing Tune: McGrigor of Roro’s lament

Raving winds around her blowing, Yellow leaves the woodlands strowing, By a river hoarsely roaring, Isabella stray’d deploring. Farewell, hours that late did measure, 5 Sunshine days of joy and pleasure; Hail, thou gloomy night of sorrow, Cheerless night that knows no morrow.

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O’er the Past too fondly wandering, On the hopeless Future pondering; 10 Chilly Grief my life-blood freezes, Fell despair my fancy seizes. Life, thou soul of every blessing, Load to Misery most distressing; Gladly how would I resign thee, 15 And to dark Oblivion join thee! SMM no. 173 (1788), signed B ‘I composed these verses on Miss Isabella McLeod of Raza, alluding to her feelings on the death of her sister, and the still more melancholy death of her sister’s husband, the late Earl of Loudoun, who shot himself out of sheer heart-break at some mortifications he suffered, owing to the deranged state of his finances’. (Notes 33) On 16 August 1788, Burns wrote to Mrs Dunlop about his first visit at Dalswinton to the Millers, from whom he rented Ellisland: We got a song on the Harpsichord, beginning—‘Raving winds around her blowing’—The Air was much admired: the Lady of the house ask’d me whose were the words—‘Mine, Madam—they are my very best verses!’ sacré Dieu! she took not the smallest notice of them!—The old Scots Proverb says well—‘King’s caff is better than ither folks’ corn’. (Letter 264, Letters I 305) The air is in Corri, Scots Songs (1783) II no. 29.

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82 Musing on the roaring ocean Tune: Druimionn dubh

Musing on the roaring ocean, Which divides my love and me, Wearying Heav’n in warm devotion For his weal where’er he be. Hope and Fear’s alternate billow 5 Yielding late to Nature’s law, Whisp’ring spirits round my pillow Talk of him that’s far awa. Ye whom Sorrow never wounded, Ye who never shed a tear, 10 Care-untroubled, joy-surrounded, Gaudy Day to you is dear:

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Gentle Night, do thou befriend me; Downy sleep the curtain draw; Spirits kind again attend me, 15 Talk of him that’s far awa’. SMM no. 179 (1788), signed R; Hastie MS, f. 41 ‘I composed these verses out of compliment to a Mrs McLachlan, whose husband is an officer in the East-Indies’ (Notes 34). The phrasing in line 8 recalls Jacobite tradition, and the air, printed in Corri, Scots Songs (1783) II no. 29, also has Jacobite associations.

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83 To daunton me, to daunton me Tune: To daunton me

The blude-red rose at Yule may blaw, The simmer lilies bloom in snaw, The frost may freeze the deepest sea; But an auld man shall never daunton me. CHORUS To daunton me, and me sae young, 5

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Wi’ his fause heart and flatt’ring tongue, That is the thing you ne’er shall see For an auld man shall never daunton me. For a’ his meal and a’ his maut, For a’ his fresh beef and his saut, 10 For a’ his gold and white monie, An auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, etc. His gear may buy him kye and yowes, His gear may buy him glens and knowes, But me he shall not buy nor fee, 15 For an auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, etc. He hirples taw-fauld as he dow, Wi’ his teethless gab and his auld beld pow, And the rain rins down frae his red blear’d e’e, That auld man shall never daunton me. 20 To daunton me, etc. SMM no. 182 (1788); Hastie MS, f. 42 blude blood Yule Christmas blaw blow simmer summer snaw snow daunton subdue, discourage fause false maut malt saut salt gear money, possessions kye cattle yowes ewes knowes hillocks fee hire hirples limps, hobbles twa-fauld two-fold dow is able gab mouth

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beld bald pow head rins runs ..... Burns writes in connection with the air To daunton me: The two following old stanzas to this tune have some merit:—

To daunton me, to daunton me, O ken ye what it is that’ll daunton me? There’s eighty eight and eighty nine, And a’ that I hae borne sinsyne, There’s cess and press and Presbytrie, I think it will do meikle for to daunton me. But to wanton me, to wanton me, O ken ye what it is that wad wanton me— To see gude corn upon the rigs, And banishment amang the Whigs, And right restor’d where right sud be, I think it wad do meikle for to wanton me. (Notes 35–6) His immediate model was another Jacobite song, popular in chapbooks, in which love is expressed in political terms. In this, a girl of fifteen has to leave her ‘brisk young Highland lad’ to marry ‘an old man neither loving nor kind’ with ‘brass and…white monie’:

To daunton me, and I so young, To daunton me it would be too soon! Contrary to him still I’ll be, And an old Carl shall ne’er daunton me! In his song, Burns has dropped any political theme in order to concentrate on the dilemma and character of his central figure, a young bride who is determined not to let her spirit be broken by an unpleasant old man. The seventeenth-century air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I no. 16; McGibbon’s Collection of Scots Tunes (1746) and Aird, Airs (1782) II no. 60.

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84 Your friendship much can make me blest Tune: Banks of Spey

Your friendship much can make me blest— O, why that bliss destroy? Why urge the only, one request You know I will deny? Your thought, if love must harbour there, 5 Conceal it in that thought; Nor cause me from my bosom tear The very friend I sought. SMM no. 186 (1788), signed M

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Eight lines by Burns added to Clarinda’s song ‘Talk not of love, it gives me pain’, part of which appeared in the Museum as ‘by a lady’.

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85 Come boat me o’er, come row me o’er Tune: Over the water to Charlie

Come boat me o’er, come row me o’er, Come boat me o’er to Charlie, I’ll gie John Ross another bawbee To boat me o’er to Charlie.

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CHORUS We’ll o’er the water, we’ll o’er the sea, 5 We’ll o’er the water to Charlie; Come weal, come woe, we’ll gather and go, And live or die wi’ Charlie. I lo’e weel my Charlie’s name, Tho’ some there be abhor him: 10 But O, to see auld Nick gaun hame, And Charlie’s faes before him! We’ll o’er, etc. I swear and vow by moon and stars, And sun that shines so early! If I had twenty thousand lives, 15 I’d die as aft for Charlie. We’ll o’er, etc. SMM no. 187 (1788) bawbee halfpenny auld Nick the devil gaun hame going home faes foes aft often Probably Burns’s revision of a Jacobite song. In The True Loyalist (1779), a Jacobite song-book, there is a song with the same title as Burns’s, and another song with a chorus like his. The well-known Jacobite tune, also known as Shawnboy, appears in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 7; in Bremner’s Reels, 1757, and elsewhere. Burns made use of it for no. 46 ‘Ye sons of old Killie, assembled by Willie’.

86 Up, and warn a’, Willie Tune: Up, and warn a’, Willie

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CHORUS Up, and warn a’, Willie, Warn, warn a’; To hear my canty highland sang Relate the thing I saw, Willie. When we gaed to the braes o’ Mar, 5 And to the wapon-shaw, Willie, Wi’ true design to serve the king And banish Whigs awa, Willie. Up and warn a’, Willie, Warn, warn a’; 10 For Lords and lairds came there bedeen And wow but they were braw, Willie. But when the standard was set up Right fierce the wind did blaw, Willie; The royal nit upon the tap 15 Down to the ground did fa’, Willie. Up and warn a’, Willie,

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Warn, warn a’; Then second sighted Sandie said We’d do nae gude at a’, Willie. 20 But when the army join’d at Perth, The bravest e’re ye saw, Willie, We didna doubt the rogues to rout, Restore our king and a’, Willie. Up and warn a’, Willie, 25 Warn, warn a’; The pipers play’d frae right to left O whirry whigs awa, Willie. But when we march’d to Sherramuir And there the rebels saw, Willie; 30 Brave Argyle attack’d our right, Our flank and front and a’, Willie. Up and warn a’, Willie, Warn, warn a’; Traitor Huntly soon gave way 35 Seaforth, St Clair and a’ Willie. But brave Glengary on our right, The rebel’s left did claw, Willie, He there the greatest slaughter made That ever Donald saw, Willie. 40 Up and warn a’, Willie, Warn, warn a’, And Whittam sh-t his breeks for fear And fast did rin awa’, Willie. For he ca’d us a Highland mob 45 And soon he’d slay us a’ Willie; But we chas’d him back to Stirling brig Dragoons and foot and a’, Willie. Up and warn a’ Willie, Warn, warn a’, 50 At length we rallied on a hill

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And briskly up did draw, Willie. .....

But when Argyle did view our line, And them in order saw, Willie, He streight gaed to Dumblane again 55 And back his left did draw, Willie. Up and warn a’ Willie, Warn, warn a’, Then we to Auchterairder march’d To wait a better fa’ Willie. 60 Now if ye spier wha wan the day, I’ve tell’d you what I saw, Willie, We baith did fight and baith did beat And baith did rin awa, Willie. Up and warn a’, Willie, 65 Warn, warn a’, Willie. For second sighted Sandie said We’d do nae gude at a’, Willie. SMM no. 188 (1788); Hastie MS, ff. 45–6 cantie cheerful sang song shaw show bedeen quickly blaw blow nit standard boss tap top nae gude at a’ no good at all didna did not whirry hurry Sherramuir Sheriffmuir claw thrash rin run ca’d called streight straight Dumblane Dunblane Auchterairder Auchterarder fa’ outcome

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spier ask tell’d told Burns’s revision of one of several traditional satirical songs concerning the Battle of Sheriffmuir, which took place on 13 November 1715 between the Hanoverian army under Argyll and the Jacobite forces under the Earl of Mar, and marked the virtual end of the Rising. The battle ended indecisively. According to another traditional song of the period,

There’s some say that we wan, Some say that they wan, Some say that nane wan at a’, man; . . . . And we ran, and they ran, and they ran, and we ran, and we ran, and they ran awa’ man. (Hecht 104–8) Burns commented on ‘Up, and warn a’, Willie’: This edition of the song I got from Tom Niel of facetious fame in Edinr. The expression Up and warn a’ Willie alludes to the crantara or warning of a highland clan to arms. Not understanding this, the Lowlanders in the West, and South, say, Up and waur them a’, &c. (Notes 37) His principal contribution was probably in the detail of lines 21–10. The air Up, and warn a’, Willie is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751) III no. 1.

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87 A rosebud, by my early walk Tune: A rosebud

This song I composed on Miss Jeany Cruikshank, only child to my worthy friend Mr Wm Cruikshank, of the High Street, Edinr. The air is by a David Sillar, quondam Merchant, now Schoolmaster in Irvine. He is the Davie to whom I address my printed poetical epistle in the measure of the Cherry and the Slae. (Notes 37–8) Apart from the few days he spent at Ochtertyre in October, Burns lodged with the Cruikshanks in St James’s Square, Edinburgh, from September 1787 until February 1788. It was during this period that he was most intensively engaged in writing songs for volume 2 of the Museum. Jeany Cruikshank, although only twelve years old, was already an accomplished player on the harpsichord. She helped Burns by letting him test out the

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melodies for which he wrote words. He expressed his gratitude by writing specially for her a poem, ‘To Miss C…., a very young Lady’, and this song. Burns had written two verse epistles to David Sillar, the composer of the air.

A rosebud, by my early walk Adown a corn-inclosèd bawk, Sae gently bent its thorny stalk, All on a dewy morning. Ere twice the shades o’ dawn are fled, 5 In a’ its crimson glory spread, And drooping rich the dewy head, It scents the early morning. Within the bush her covert nest A little linnet fondly prest, 10 The dew sat chilly on her breast Sae early in the morning. She soon shall see her tender brood The pride, the pleasure o’ the wood, Amang the fresh green leaves bedew’d, 15 Awauk the early morning. So thou, dear bird, young Jeany fair, On trembling string or vocal air, Shalt sweetly pay the tender care That tents thy early morning. 20 So thou, sweet Rose bud, young and gay, Shalt beauteous blaze upon the day, And bless the Parent’s evening ray That watch’d thy early morning. SMM no. 189 (1788), signed B; Hastie MS, f. 47 bawk strip of unploughed land awauk awaken tents tends, cares for

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88 Go on, sweet bird, and soothe my care Tune: Scots Queen

Go on, sweet bird, and soothe my care, Thy tuneful notes will hush despair; Thy plaintive warblings void of art, Thrill sweetly thro’ my aching heart.

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Now chuse thy mate, and fondly love, 5 And all the charming transport prove; While I a lovelorn exile live, Nor transport or receive or give. For thee is laughing nature gay; For thee she pours the vernal day: 10 For me in vain is nature drest, While joy’s a stranger to my breast! These sweet emotions all enjoy; Let love and song thy hours employ! Go on, sweet bird, and soothe my care; 15 Thy tuneful notes will hush despair. SMM no. 190 (1788), signed M; Hastie MS, f. 48 Burns’s revision of lines sent to him on 19 January 1788, ‘the first fruits of my muse’, by Clarinda: To a Blackbird singing on a Tree Morningside, 1784

Go on, sweet bird, and soothe my care, Thy cheerful notes will hush despair; Thy tuneful warblings, void of art Thrill sweetly thro’ my aching heart. Now choose thy mate and fondly love, And all the charming transport prove— Those sweet emotions all enjoy, Let Love and Song thy hours employ; Whilst I, a lovelorn exile, live, And rapture nor receive nor give. Go on, sweet bird, and soothe my care, Thy cheerful notes will hush despair. The revised song appeared in the SMM as ‘To a Blackbird. By a Lady’.

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89 And I’ll kiss thee yet, yet Tune: Braes o’ Balquhidder

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CHORUS And I’ll kiss thee yet, yet, An I’ll kiss thee o’er again; An I’ll kiss thee yet, yet, My bony Peggy Alison. Ilk care and fear, when thou art near, 5 I ever mair defy them, O; Young kings upon their hansel throne Are no sae blest as I am, O! When in my arms, wi’ a’ thy charms, I clasp my countless treasure, O! 10 I seek nae mair o’ Heav’n to share, Than sic a moment’s pleasure, O! And by thy een sae bony blue, I swear I’m thine forever O! And on thy lips I seal my vow, 15 And break it shall I never O! SMM no. 193 (1788), signed Z The chorus is probably traditional, the words of the song original. The girl whose charms Burns celebrates has not been certainly identified; possible candidates include Alison Begbie and Mary Campbell. The air is in Bremner’s Reels (1758) 37.

90 O, rattlin, roarin Willie Tune: Rattlin, roarin Willie

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Burns explained, ‘The last stanza of this song is mine and out of compliment to one of the worthiest fellows in the world, William Dunbar, Esq., Writer to the Signet, Edinburgh, and Colonel of the Crochallan Corps, a club of wits who took that title at the time of raising the fencible regiments’ (Notes 39). William Dunbar, who before his death in 1807 became inspector-general of stamp duties in Scotland, was a member of the Masonic Lodge, Canongate Kilwinning, as well as of the Crochallan Fencibles—at one of whose convivial gatherings Burns had first met James Johnson. It is easy to imagine that the poet’s deft addition to two traditional stanzas of an original stanza about someone they knew must have entertained the Crochallan ‘companie’. The tune is given as Bonny, roaring Willie in a manuscript of 1692. According to tradition, Willie was a Border minstrel; his name became linked in song in the eighteenth century with the incident of the fiddle. Compare The Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and Peter Opie (Oxford, 1951) no. 267:

Jacky, come give me thy fiddle, If ever you mean to thrive. Nay, I’ll not give my fiddle To any man alive. If I should give my fiddle, They’ll think that I’m gone mad, For many a joyful day My fiddle and I have had. O, rattlin, roarin Willie, O, he held to the fair,

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An’ for to sell his fiddle And buy some other ware; But parting wi’ his fiddle, 5 The saut tear blin’t his e’e— And rattlin, roarin Willie Ye’re welcome hame to me! O Willie, come sell your fiddle, O sell your fiddle sae fine; 10 O Willie, come sell your fiddle, And buy a pint o’ wine; If I could sell my fiddle, The warl’ would think I was mad, For mony a ranting day 15 My fiddle and I hae had. As I cam by Crochallan I cannily keekit ben, Rattlin, roarin Willie Was sitting at yon boord-en’, 20 Sitting at yon boord-en’, And amang guide companie; Rattlin, roarin Willie, Ye’re welcome hame to me. SMM no. 194 (1788), signed Z rattlin talkative roarin brisk, vigorous saut salt blin’t blinded warl’ world rantin riotous cannily carefully keekit looked ben inside boord-en’ table-end

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91 Clarinda, mistress of my soul Music by J.G.C.Schetky

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Clarinda, mistress of my soul, The measur’d time is run! The wretch beneath the dreary pole So marks his latest sun. To what dark cave of frozen night 5 Shall poor Sylvander hie; Depriv’d of thee, his life and light, The Sun of all his joy. We part—but by these precious drops, That fill thy lovely eyes! 10 No other light shall guide my steps, Till thy bright beams arise. She, the fair Sun of all her sex, Has blest my glorious day: And shall a glimmering Planet fix 15 My worship to its ray? SMM no. 198 (1788) signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ Burns sent this song to Mrs Dunlop on 12 February 1788, with the comment, I am sick of writing where my bosom is not strongly interested.—Tell me what you think of the following? there, the bosom was perhaps a little interested… Mr. Schetky, the celebrated Musician, has done these lines the honor of setting them to music. (Letter 198, Letters I 229)

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Later, he wrote to the same correspondent: My song, Clarinda, was a real affair.—It was un petit egaremen du coeur during my last stay in Edinr, but circumstances are too romantic to be credited even almost from the mouth of Truth herself. (Letter 290, ibid., 342) The song belongs to the time when the ‘Sylvander-Clarinda’ relationship, Burns’s friendship with Nancy McLehose, was at its most intense. The tune is by J.G.C.Schetky (1737–1824), a native of Darmstadt who came to Edinburgh in 1772 as principal cellist to the Musical Society. Source of music: SMM no. 198. Music text © David Johnson, 1993. [Bar 10 keyboard, note 3 originally A.]

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92 The winter it is past, and the summer’s come at last Tune: The winter it is past

The winter it is past, and the summer’s come at last, And the small birds sing on ev’ry tree: The hearts of these are glad, but mine is very sad, For my lover has parted from me. The rose upon the brier, by the waters running clear, 5 May have charms for the linnet or the bee; Their little loves are blest and their little hearts at rest, But my lover is parted from me. My love is like the sun, in the firmament does run, Forever is constant and true; 10 But his is like the moon that wanders up and down, And every month it is new.

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All you that are in love and cannot it remove, I pity the pains you endure: For experience makes me know that your hearts are full of woe, 15 A woe that no mortal can cure. SMM no. 200 (1788) Burns’s revision of a popular stall-ballad, ‘The Lovesick Maid’. The original subject was a highwayman named Johnson, hanged in 1750 for robbery in the Curragh of Kildare. Burns omitted two weak stanzas referring directly to Johnson and to Kildare, added an original second stanza, and lightly revised the remainder of the song-text. As a result, ‘The winter it is past’ can stand as a universal expression of the sadness of love. The tune is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759).

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93 The small birds rejoice in the green leaves returning Tune: Captain O’Kane

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The small birds rejoice in the green leaves returning, The murmuring streamlet winds clear thro’ the vale; The primroses blow in the dews of the morning, And wild-scattered cowslips bedeck the green dale: But what can give pleasure, or what can seem fair, 5 When the lingering moments are number’d by care? No birds sweetly singing, nor flow’rs gaily springing, Can soothe the sad bosom of joyless despair.— The deed that I dared, could it merit their malice, A KING and a FATHER to place on his throne; 10 His right are these hills, and his right are these vallies, Where wild beasts find shelter but I can find none: But ‘tis not my sufferings, thus wretched, forlorn, My brave, gallant friends, ‘tis your ruin I mourn; Your faith proved so loyal in hot, bloody trial, 15 Alas, can I make it no sweeter return! Currie (1800) Burns drafted the first stanza and sent it to his fellow member of the Crochallan Fencibles Robert Cleghorn in March 1788 after completing a lonely journey in the Galloway hills, during which he recalled Cleghorn’s ‘favourite air’, an Irish lament (Letter 230, Letters I 269–70). Cleghorn liked it, and encouraged him to add to it ‘in the Jacobite style’. ‘Suppose it should be sung’, he wrote, ‘after the field of Culloden by the unfortunate Charles. Tenducci personates the lovely Mary Stewart… Why may not I sing in the person of her great-great-great grandson’ (Currie (1800) II 130–1; 27 April 1788). Burns had not ‘hit on another Stanza, equal to “The small birds rejoice” &c’ by April 1793 (Letter 557, Letters II 206), but eventually he completed it for Thomson in the manner that Cleghorn had suggested. The Irish air is in SMM no. 508 (1803).

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94 O wha will to Saint Stephen’s house Tune: Killiecrankie

O wha will to Saint Stephen’s house, To do our errands there, man? O wha will to Saint Stephen’s house, O’ th’ merry lads of Ayr, man? Or will we send a man o’ law? 5 Or will we send a sodger? Or him wha led o’er Scotland a’ The meikle Ursa Major?

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Come, will ye court a noble Lord, Or buy a score o’ Lairds, man? 10 For Worth and Honor pawn their word Their vote shall be Glencaird’s, man? Ane gies them coin, ane gies them wine, Anither gies them clatter; Anbank, wha guess’d the ladies’ taste, 15 He gies a Fete Champetre. When Love and Beauty heard the news, The gay green-woods amang, man, Where gathering flowers and busking bowers They heard the blackbird’s sang, man; 20 A vow they seal’d it with a kiss Sir Politicks to fetter, As theirs alone, the Patent-bliss, To hold a Fete Champetre. Then mounted Mirth, on gleesome wing, 25 O’er hill and dale she flew, man; Ilk wimpling burn, ilk chrystal spring, Ilk glen and shaw she knew, man: She summon’d every SOCIAL SPRITE, That sports by wood or water, 30 On th’ bony Banks of Ayr to meet, And keep this Fete Champetre. Cauld Boreas, wi’ his boisterous crew, Were bound to stakes like kye, man; And Cynthia’s car, o’ silver fu’, 35 Clamb up the starry sky, man: Reflected beams dwell in the streams, Or down the current shatter; The western breeze steals thro’ the trees, To view this Fete Champetre. 40 .....

How many a robe sae gayly floats!

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What sparkling jewels glance, man! To HARMONY’S enchanting notes As moves the mazy dance, man! The echoing wood, the winding flood, 45 Like Paradise did glitter, When Angels met, at Adam’s yett, To hold their Fete Champetre. When Politics cam there, to mix And make his ether-stane, man, 50 He circl’d round the magic ground, But entrance found he nane, man: He blush’d for shame, he quat his name, Forswore it every letter, Wi’ humble prayer to join and share 55 This festive Fete Champetre. Gilbert Burns, Works of Burns (1820) sodger soldier clatter chatter busking dressing up shaw little wood kye cattle fu’ full clamb climbed yett gate quat abandoned Burns sent this satirical ballad to John Ballantine in July 1788. It makes fun of the coming of age of William Cunninghame of Enterkine, Tarbolton, which took place in 1788 while his mansions of Enterkine and Annbank were under repair (cf. l.15). Gilbert Burns notes: Wishing to introduce himself with some eclat to the country, he got temporary erections made on the banks of Ayr, tastefully decorated with shrubs and flowers, for a supper and ball, to which most of the respectable families in the county were invited. It was a novelty…and attracted much notice. A dissolution of parliament was soon expected, and this festivity was thought to be an introduction to a canvas…. [But] Mr. C. did not canvas the country. For the air, see no. 49 ‘He clench’d his pamphlets’.

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1

Saint Stephen’s house: parliament

7– 8

him wha led… Ursa Major: James Boswell, who accompanied Dr Johnson on his tour of Scotland in 1773

12

Glencaird: Sir John Whitefoord, formerly of Ballochmyle, who was believed to have considerable political patronage in Ayrshire

50

ether-stane: a prehistoric stone, used as an amulet, and thought by some to have been perforated by the bites of adders

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Songs and notes

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95 O Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet Tune: Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet

CHORUS O Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet, Mally’s modest and discreet, Mally’s rare, Mally’s fair, Mally’s ev’ry way complete. As I was walking up the street, 5 A barefit maid I chanc’d to meet, But O, the road was very hard, For that fair maiden’s tender feet! Mally’s meek, etc. It were mair meet, that those fine feet Were weel lac’d up in silken shoon, 10

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And twere more fit that she should sit Within yon chariot gilt aboon. Mally’s meek, etc. Her yellow hair, beyond compare, Comes trinkling down her swan white neck, And her two eyes like stars in skies, 15 Would keep a sinking ship frae wreck. Mally’s meek, etc. SMM no. 597 (1803) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ barefit barefoot shoon shoes This song is in a list which Burns sent to Johnson in August 1788, but it was one of the last songs to be printed in the final volume of the Museum. Stenhouse states that it was written by Burns, who communicated the air (Stenhouse (1853) 510). As his information was not always accurate, ‘O Mally’s fair’ may well belong to the group of traditional songs revised by Burns.

Songs and notes

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96 Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw Tune: Miss Admiral Gordon’s Strathspey

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Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west, For there the bony lassie lives, The lassie I lo’e best: There’s wild-woods grow, and rivers row, 5 And mony a hill between; But day and night my fancy’s flight, Is ever wi’ my Jean. I see her in the dewy flowers, I see her sweet and fair; 10 I hear her in the tunefu’ birds, I hear her charm the air: There’s not a bony flower that springs By fountain, shaw, or green, There’s not a bony bird that sings, 15 But minds me o’ my Jean. SMM no. 235 (1790), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by R.Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 55 airts directions blaw blow row roll shaw ‘a small wood in a hollow place’ (Burns) Burns noted, The air is by Marshall; the song I composed out of compliment to Mrs. Burns. N.B. It was during the honeymoon’ (Notes 46). The song was written at Ellisland, Dumfriesshire, in June 1788, at a time when his wife was still at Mossgiel in Ayrshire (to the north-west), staying with his mother and sisters. Lines 9–16 may possibly have been influenced by a sentence in Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Heloise—‘Je la vois sur chaque objet, je la sens a chaque pas; à chaque instant du jour j’entends les accents de sa voix’— but it seems more likely that Burns simply recalled Jean, who had a good singing voice (l. 3). The tune had appeared in Marshall’s Collection of Reels (1781), and in McGlashan’s Reels (1786).

Songs and notes

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97 O, were I on Parnassus hill! Tune: My love is lost to me

O, were I on Parnassus hill! Or had o’ Helicon my fill, That I might catch poetic skill To sing how dear I love thee! But Nith maun be my Muse’s well, 5 My Muse maun be thy bonie sel’, On Corsincon I’ll glow’r and spell, And write how dear I love thee. Then come, sweet Muse, inspire my lay! For a’ the lee-lang simmer’s day, 10

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I couldna sing, I couldna say, How much, how dear, I love thee. I see thee dancing o’er the green, Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean, Thy tempting lips, thy roguish een—15 By Heaven and Earth I love thee. By night, by day, a-field, at hame, The thoughts o’ thee my breast inflame; And ay I muse and sing thy name, I only live to love thee. 20 Tho’ I were doom’d to wander on, Beyond the sea, beyond the sun, Till my last, weary sand was run; Till then—and then I love thee. SMM no. 255 (1790), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ sell self lee-lang live-long simmer summer couldna could not jimp slender hame home The air is Oswald’s’, says Burns, ‘the song I made out of compliment to Mrs Burns’ (Notes 47). He wrote ‘O were I on Parnassus hill’ in August 1788, while waiting for Jean Armour Burns to join him from Ayrshire. (Cf. ‘Of a’ the airts…) ‘Corsincon’ (l. 7) is a hill visible both from Ellisland and from parts of Ayrshire. The air, printed in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753) V no. 25, is in two parts, and Burns has fitted to it pairs of four-line stanzas.

Songs and notes

325

98 The Thames flows proudly to the sea Tune: Robie donna gorach

The Thames flows proudly to the sea, Where royal cities stately stand; But sweeter flows the Nith to me, Where Cummins ance had high command. When shall I see that honor’d Land, 5 That winding Stream I love so dear! Must wayward Fortune’s adverse hand For ever, ever keep me here. How lovely, Nith, thy fruitful vales, Where bounding hawthorns gayly bloom; 10 And sweetly spread thy sloping dales Where lambkins wanton through the broom! Tho’ wandering, now, must be my doom, Far from thy bonie banks and braes, May there my latest hours consume, 15

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Amang the friends of early days! SMM no. 295 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ Burns wrote this song on 20 August 1788 and sent it the next day to his friend Mrs Dunlop with the comment, The following is the first Compliment I have paid the Nith, and was the work of an hour as I jogged up his banks yesterday morning. The idea is a young Gentleman perhaps going abroad.—I do not affirm it has merit: the fact is, an Author is by no means a competent judge of his own composition; at least till the heyday of Novelty evaporate. (Letter 265, Letters I 308) While the tune in the SMM is identified as Robie donna gorach, Johnson in fact printed instead an air by Burns’s friend Robert Riddell, The Banks of Nith. (The Law MS, in Burns’s hand, is the source of the confusion, as it instructed the printer The Banks of Nith Tune, Robie donna gorach. Mr. Burns’s words’.) Source of music: Niel Gow’s First Collection (1784).

Songs and notes

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99 The day returns, my bosom burns Tune: Seventh of November

The day returns, my bosom burns, The blissful day we twa did meet; Tho’ winter wild in tempest toil’d, Ne’er summer sun was half sae sweet.

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Than a’ the pride that loads the tide, 5 And crosses o’er the sultry line, Than kingly robes, than crowns and globes, Heav’n gave me more—it made thee mine! While day and night can bring delight, Or Nature aught of pleasure give; 10 While joys above, my mind can move, For thee and thee alone I live! When that grim foe of life below Comes in between to make us part; The iron hand that breaks our band, 15 It breaks my bliss—it breaks my heart! SMM no. 224 (1790), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 54v simmer summer aught anything ‘I composed this song’, Burns noted, out of compliment to one of the happiest and worthiest married couples in the world, Robert Riddel, Esq., of Glenriddel, and his lady. At their fireside I have enjoyed more pleasant evenings than at all the houses of fashionable people in this country put together; and to their kindness and hospitality I am indebted for many of the happiest hours of my life. (Notes 73) The tune had been composed by Riddell, to whom Burns wrote in September 1788, As I was busy behind my harvest-folks this forenoon, and musing on a proper theme for your ‘Seventh of November’, some of the conversation before me accidentally suggested a suspicion that this said Seventh of Nov. is a Matrimonial Anniversary with a certain very worthy Neighbour…my imagination took the hint accordingly. (Letter 271, Letters I 316)

100 I gaed a waefu’ gate yestreen

Songs and notes

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Tune: The blue ey’d lassie

I gaed a waefu’ gate yestreen, A gate I fear I’ll dearly rue; I gat my death frae twa sweet een, Twa lovely een o’ bonie blue! ‘Twas not her golden ringlets bright, 5 Her lips like roses wat wi’ dew, Her heaving bosom lily-white— It was her een sae bonie blue. She talk’d, she smil’d, my heart she wyl’d,

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She charm’d my soul I wist na how; 10 And ay the stound, the deadly wound, Cam frae her een sae bonie blue. But spare to speak, and spare to speed; She’ll aiblins listen to my vow: Should she refuse, I’ll lay my dead 15 To her twa een sae bonie blue. SMM no. 294 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ waefu’ woeful gate way yestreen yesterday evening gat got wat wet wyl’d beguiled wist knew stound thrill of pleasure aiblins perhaps dead death This song was written in honour of Jean Jaffray (b. 1773), daughter of Andrew Jaffray, the parish minister of Lochmaben, with whom Burns stayed several times while on Excise business. She later spoke to George Thomson’s son of Burns’s ‘manly, luminous observations and artless manners’, which enchanted the manse family on visits paid during his exciseman’s rides (Chambers-Wallace (1896) III 138). Burns wrote the song for one of Robert Riddell’s tunes, contained in his New Music (1787).

Songs and notes

331

101 Fate gave the word—the arrow sped Tune: Finlayston house

Fate gave the word—the arrow sped, And pierc’d my darling’s heart; And with him all the joys are fled

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Life can to me impart. By cruel hands the sapling drops, 5 In dust dishonour’d laid: So fell the pride of all my hopes, My age’s future shade. The mother-linnet in the brake Bewails her ravish’d young; 10 So I, for my lost Darling’s sake, Lament the live day long. Death! oft, I’ve fear’d thy fatal blow; Now, fond, I bare my breast; O, do thou come and lay me low, 15 With him I love at rest! SMM no. 271 (1790), signed B A footnote (not in Burns’s hand) in the Afton Lodge MS describes this song as a tribute ‘To the Memory of Alexr Gordon Stewart, only son of Genl Alex. Stewart M.P. and Mrs. Stewart of Afton, who died at a Military Academy at Strasburgh on the 5th of December 1787 aged 16’. But it appears probable that Burns’s lines were in fact written after Mrs Fergusson of Craigdarroch’s student son died at Glasgow on 5 November 1787. Robert Riddell comments on the air, ‘This most beautiful tune is (I think) the happiest composition of that bard-born genius John Riddell (of the family of Glencarnock) at Ayr’ (Notes 69).

Songs and notes

333

102 The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill Tune: The lazy mist

The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill, Concealing the course of the dark winding rill;

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How languid the scenes, late so sprightly, appear, As Autumn to Winter resigns the pale year! The forests are leafless, the meadows are brown, 5 And all the gay foppery of Summer is flown. Apart let me wander, apart let me muse, How quick Time is flying, how keen Fate pursues! How long I have liv’d—but how much liv’d in vain; How little of life’s scanty span may remain: 10 What aspects, old Time, in his progress, has worn; What ties, cruel Fate, in my bosom has torn. How foolish, or worse, till our summit is gain’d! And downward, how weaken’d, how darken’d, how pain’d! Life is not worth having with all it can give, 15 For something beyond it poor man sure must live. SMM no. 232 (1790), signed B ‘This song is mine’ (Notes 45). Burns sent copies of this and the previous song to Dr Blacklock on 15 November 1788 as ‘two melancholy things, which I tremble lest they should too well suit the tone of your present feelings’ (Letter 287, Letters I 338). The air, which is Irish, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) XII no. 20.

Songs and notes

335

103 First when Maggie was my care Tune: Whistle o’er the lave o’t

First when Maggie was my care, Heav’n, I thought, was in her air; Now we’re married, spier nae mair, But whistle o’er the lave o’t! Meg was meek, and Meg was mild, 5 Sweet and harmless as a child— Wiser men than me’s beguil’d—, [So] Whistle o’er the lave o’t. How we live, my Meg and me, How we love and how we gree; 10 I carna by how few may see,

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Whistle o’er the lave o’t. Wha I wish were maggots meat, Dish’d up in her winding-sheet; I could write—but Meg maun see’t, 15 Whistle o’er the lave o’t. SMM no. 249 (1790), signed X spier ask nae mair no more lave rest gree agree Burns wrote to George Thomson in October 1794, ‘Whistle o’er the lave o’t’ is mine: the music said to be by a John Bruce, a celebrated violin-player, in Dumfries about the beginning of this century.—This I know, Bruce, who was an honest man, though a red-wud [raging mad] Highlandman, constantly claimed it, and by all the old musical people here, is believed to be the Author of it. (Letter 644, Letters II 316) Kinsley comments: His song is built up on structural and tonal contrasts—the rhetorical antitheses in ll. 1 and 3, 5 and 7, and 15, and the interplay of disclosure and implication; the anxiety which runs from stanza to stanza under the half-jocular abandon of the refrain; and the movement from the language of infatuation in ll. 1–2, 5–6, to the imagery of the grave at the end. (Commentary 1284) The tune had been printed in several collections, including Bremner’s Reels (1759).

Songs and notes

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104 My heart is a-breaking, dear Tittie Tune: Tam Glen

Burns wrote to Mrs Dunlop in December 1788, I shall give you a song I finished the other day, & sent it to Johnson for his Publication.—It sings to an excellent old lilt, known in Oswald’s Collection of Scots Music by the name of, ‘The merry beggars’.—I would give a bottle of wine to hear it sung…. (Letter 290, Letters I 344) Robert Riddell described the song as ‘this droll and expressive description of the feelings of a lovesick country girl’ (Notes 70). The appeal of the song lies in the girl’s singleminded preoccupation with Tam Glen. She sees him as her destined lover whatever her parents may think. Theology (‘if it’s ordain’d I maun tak him’) and superstition (‘the last Halloween…’) both point in the same direction. A nice touch is the reference to Lowrie the laird o’ Dumeller. Like the awkward suitor Dumbiedykes in Scott’s The Heart of Midlothian, he is a man with more silver to offer than gracious words. Dick comments that the air is of English origin, and in the opera The Jovial Crew (1731), is sung to the words ‘I once was a poet’.

My heart is a-breaking, dear Tittie, Some counsel unto me come len’:

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To anger them a’ is a pity, But what will I do wi’ Tam Glen? I’m thinking, wi’ sic a braw fellow, 5 In poortith I might mak a fen’: What care I in riches to wallow, If I mauna marry Tam Glen. There’s Lowrie the laird o’ Dumeller, ‘Gude day to you brute’ he comes ben: 10 He brags and he blaws o’ his siller, But when will he dance like Tam Glen? My Minnie does constantly deave me, And bids me beware o’ young men; They flatter, she says, to deceive me, 15 But wha can think sae o’ Tam Glen? My Daddie says, gin I’ll forsake him, He’ll gie me gude hunder marks ten: But, if it’s ordain’d I maun take him, O wha will I get but Tam Glen? 20 Yestreen at the Valentines’ dealing, My heart to my mou gied a sten; For thrice I drew ane without failing, And thrice it was written, Tam Glen. The last Halloween I was waukin 25 My droukit sark-sleeve, as ye ken; His likeness cam up the house staukin, And the very grey breeks o’ Tam Glen. Come counsel, dear Tittie, don’t tarry: I’ll gie you my bonie black hen, 30 Gif ye will advise me to Marry The lad I lo’e dearly, Tam Glen. SMM no. 296 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’

Songs and notes

tittie sister len’ lend poortith poverty mak a fen make do mauna must not laird squire ben indoors blaws boasts siller silver Minnie mother deave deafen gin if hunder hundred yestreen yesterday evening mou mouth gied gave sten leap Halloween eve of All Saints’ Day waukin watching droukit drenched sark shirt staukin stalking breeks trousers gif if

339

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105 Should auld acquaintance be forgot Tune: Auld lang syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne? CHORUS For auld lang syne, my jo, 5 For auld lang syne, We’ll tak a *cup o’ kindness yet,

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For auld lang syne. And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp! And surely I’ll be mine! 10 And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. For auld lang, etc. We twa hae run about the braes, And pou’d the gowans fine; But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fitt, 15 Sin auld lang syne. For auld lang, etc. We twa hae paidl’d in the burn, Frae morning sun till dine; But seas between us braid hae roar’d Sin auld lang syne. 20 For auld lang, etc. And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere! And gie’s a hand o’ thine! And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught, For auld lang syne. For auld lang, etc. SMM no. 413 (1796), signed Z *Some sing Kiss, in place of Cup.

auld old lang syne long since, long ago jo sweetheart stowp tankard, measure pou’d pulled gowans ‘the flower of the daisy, dandelion, hawkweed etc.’ (Burns) fitt foot paidl’d paddled burn stream dine dinner-time braid broad

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fiere companion gude-willie-waught cordial drink, ‘cup of kindness’ *** Burns wrote to George Thomson in early September 1793, One Song more, & I have done.—Auld lang syne—The air is but mediocre; but the following song, the old Song of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, untill I took it down from an old man’s singing; is enough to recommend any air’:

Auld lang syne— Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days o’ lang syne? CHORUS For auld lang syne, my Dear, For auld lang syne, We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne— We twa hae run about the braes, And pu’t the gowans fine; But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot, Sin auld lang syne.— For auld lang &c.— We twa hae paidlet i’ the burn, Frae mornin sun till dine: But seas between us braid hae roar’d, Sin auld lang syne.— For auld &c. And there’s a hand, my trusty feire, And gie’s a hand o’ thine; And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught, For auld lang syne.— For auld &c.

Songs and notes

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And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp, And surely I’ll be mine; And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, For auld lang syne. For auld &c.—(Letter 586, Letters II 246) The phrase ‘pou’d the gowans fine’ (l. 14) recalls carpe diem advice in a song by Allan Ramsay in the Tea-Table Miscellany (1724) which contains the lines:

Sweet youth’s a blyth and heartsome Time; Then, Lads and Lasses, while ‘tis May, Gae pu the Gowan in its prime, Before it wither and decay. Such original rehandling of what in Ramsay is specifically addressed to lovers looks like Burns’s work. For a discussion of whether he revised ‘Auld Lang Syne’, in addition to collecting it, see Introduction, pp. 25–7, and G.Ross Roy, ‘Auld Lang Syne’, Scottish Poetry Reprints 5, Greenock 1984. The air is at least as old as 1700, when it was published in Playford’s Original Scotch Tunes as For old long Sine my jo. It is in Orpheus Caledonius (1725) no. 31 and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751) III no. 21.

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106 Go, fetch to me a pint o’ wine

Songs and notes

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Tune: The secret kiss

Go, fetch to me a pint o’ wine, And fill it in a silver tassie, That I may drink before I go A service to my bonie lassie. The boat rocks at the pier o’ Leith, 5 Fu’ loud the wind blaws frae the ferry, The ship rides by the Berwick-Law, And I maun leave my bonie Mary.

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The trumpets sound, the banners fly, The glittering spears are ranked ready, 10 The shouts o’ war are heard afar, The battle closes deep and bloody: It’s not the roar o’ sea or shore, Wad make me langer wish to tarry, Nor shouts o’ war that’s heard afar, 15 It’s leaving thee, my bony Mary! SMM no. 231 (1790); Hastie MS, f. 55 tassie goblet blaws blows langer longer Burns sent Mrs Dunlop a copy of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ on 7 December 1788, and added, ‘Now that I am on my Hobby-horse, I cannot help inserting two other old Stanzas which please me mightily’: he then copied out ‘Go fetch to me’ (Letter 290, Letters I 345). This comment would appear to suggest that the song was traditional. However, in a letter to George Thomson in September 1793, he referred to ‘Go fetch to me…’ as ‘a song of mine, and I think not a bad one’ (Letter 586, ibid. II 243), and elsewhere explicitly stated, ‘the first half stanza of the song is old, the rest is mine’ (Notes 45). What he has done is to build on the hint contained in the opening line a whole scene of parting, and make it timeless—the ‘spears’ suggest the Middle Ages, but the boat rocking at the pier of Leith might belong to any of the wars of his own century. Oswald’s air, The secret kiss, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 23. Burns proposed to Thomson that the song could be set to a different and older air, Wae’s my heart that we should sunder, but Thomson ignored his request, printing it instead to The old highland laddie which it does not match.

Songs and notes

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107 The cares o’ Love are sweeter far

HE The cares o’ Love are sweeter far Than onie other pleasure; And if sae dear its sorrows are, Enjoyment, what a treasure! SHE I fear to try, I dare na try 5 A passion sae ensnaring; For light’s her heart and blythe’s her song That for nae man is caring. Centenary Burns (1896) Kinsley points out Burns’s debt in this song to a song by Dryden in Tyrannick Love (1670) IV, reprinted in The Charmer (1782) I 219, which Burns owned:

Ah how sweet it is to love, Ah how gay is young desire! And what pleasing pains we prove When we first approach Loves fire! Pains of Love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are.

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108 Louis, what reck I by thee Tune: Louis, what reck

Louis, what reck I by thee, Or Geordie on his ocean? Dyvor, beggar louns to me! I reign in Jeanie’s bosom. Let her crown my love her law, 5 And in her breast enthrone me: Kings and nations, swith awa! Reif randies I disown ye! SMM no. 414 (1796), signed R reck care dyvor bankrupt louns fellows, rogues swith awa quickly away reif thieving randies rough fellows Burns may have written this song after his wife Jean joined him in Dumfriesshire in December 1788: Louis XVI of France was little to be ‘recked by’ in 1789. Asterisks after the text in SMM may indicate that in Burns’s eyes the song was a fragment, to which he had intended to add. Stenhouse notes that Burns ‘communicated the fine old air’ to Johnson (Stenhouse (1853) 376–7).

Songs and notes

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109 Robin shure in hairst Tune: Rob shear’d in hairst

CHORUS Robin shure in hairst, I shure wi’ him; Fint a heuk had I, Yet I stack by him. I gaed up to Dunse, 5 To warp a wab o’ plaiden; At his daddie’s yett Wha met me but Robin! Robin shure, etc. Was na Robin bauld,

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Tho’ I was a cotter, 10 Play’d me sic a trick And me the Eller’s dochter? Robin shure, etc. Robin promis’d me A’ my winter vittle; Fient haet he had but three 15 Goos feathers and whittle. Robin shure, etc. SMM no. 543 (1803) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ shure reaped with a sickle hairst harvest fint a not one heuk hook stack by stuck with warp weave wab o’ plaiden woven fabric of check or tartan yet gate bauld bold cotter cottager Eller elder dochter daughter vittle grain, fodder fient haet devil a bit goos goose whittle pen-knife Burns wrote this song to tease his friend Bob Ainslie, a law student in Edinburgh and son of a farmer near Duns, who had accompanied the poet on his tour of the Borders in the early summer of 1787. Ainslie had an eye for a pretty girl, whether or not the daughter of an Eller (elder in the kirk). Goose-feathers and penknife (line 16) denote the lawyer. On 6 January 1789 Burns sent Ainslie a revised version of the song, with the comment, I am still catering for Johnson’s publication; and among others, I have brushed up the following old favorite Song a little, with a view to your worship.—I have only altered a word here and there; but if you like the humour of it, we shall think of a Stanza or two to add to it. (Letter 295, Letters I 353) As he indicates, the basis of the song was traditional. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753).

Songs and notes

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110 Come rede me, dame, come tell me, dame Tune: The Quaker’s wife

‘Come rede me, dame, come tell me, dame, My dame come tell me truly, What length o’ graith, when weel ca’d hame, Will sair a woman duly?’ The carlin clew her wanton tail, 5

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Her wanton tail sae ready— I learn’d a sang in Annandale, Nine inch will please a lady.— But for a koontrie c-nt like mine, In sooth, we’re nae sae gentle; 10 We’ll tak tway thumb-bread to the nine, And tha’s a sonsy p-ntle: O Leeze me on my Charlie lad, I’ll ne’er forget my Charlie! Tway roarin handfu’s and a daud, 15 He nidge’t it in fu’ rarely. But weary fa’ the laithron doup, And may it ne’er ken thrivin! It’s no the length that maks me loup, But it’s the double drivin.—20 Come nidge me, Tam, come nidge me, Tam, Come nidge me o’er the nyvel! Come lowse and lug your battering ram, And thrash him at my gyvel! MMC rede advise graith tool, implements ca’d driven hame home sair serve carlin old woman clew scratched koontrie country sooth truth thumb-bread thumbs’ breadths sonsy comely leeze me on I am delighted by roarin vigorous daud a bit nidge thrust laithron lazy, inactive doup backside loup jump

Songs and notes

353

nyvel navel lowse unleash gyvel gable The opening lines are probably traditional, but lines 5–7 exist in Burns’s holograph, and the song as a whole is marked by his energy and humour. The tune is taken from Niel Gow’s Complete Repository (1802) II: ‘Merrily danced the Quaker’s wife’.

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111 There was on a time, but old Time was then young Tune: Caledonian hunt’s delight

Songs and notes

355

There was on a time, but old Time was then young, That brave Caledonia, the chief of her line, From some of your northern deities sprung, (Who knows not that brave Caledonia’s divine) From Tweed to the Orcades was her domain, 5 To hunt, or to pasture, or do what she would; Her heavenly relations there fixèd her reign, And pledged their godheads to warrant it good. A lambkin in peace, but a lion in war, The pride of her kindred the Heroine grew; 10 Her grandsire, old Odin, triumphantly swore, ‘Who e’er shall provoke thee th’encounter shall rue!’ With tillage or pasture at times she would sport, To feed her fair flocks by her green-rustling corn; But chiefly the woods were her fav’rite resort, 15 Her darling amusement the hounds and the horn. Long quiet she reigned, till thitherward steers A flight of bold eagles from Adria’s strand; Repeated, successive, for many long years, They darkened the air and they plunder’d theland. 20 Their pounces were murder, and horror their cry, They’d ravag’d and ruin’d a world beside; She took to her hills and her arrows let fly, The daring invaders they fled or they di’d. The Camelon Savage disturb’d her repose 25 With tumult, disquiet, rebellion and strife; Provok’d beyond bearing, at last she arose, And robb’d him at once of his hopes and his life. The Anglian lion, the terror of France, Oft prowling ensanguin’d the Tweed’s silver flood; 30 But taught by the bright Caledonian lance, He learned to fear in his own native wood. The fell Harpy-raven took wing from the North, The scourge of the seas and the dread of the shore;

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The wild Scandinavian boar issu’d forth, 35 To wanton in carnage and wallow in gore: O’er countries and kingdoms their fury prevail’d, No arts could appease them, no arms could repel; But brave Caledonia in vain they assail’d, As Largs well can witness, and Loncartie tell. 40 ***

Thus bold, independant, unconquer’d and free, Her bright course of glory for ever shall run; For brave Caledonia immortal must be, I’ll prove it from Euclid as clear as the sun: Rectangle-triangle the figure we’ll chuse, 45 The Upright is Chance, and old Time is the base; But brave Caledonia’s the Hypothenuse, Then, Ergo, she’ll match them, and match them always. Watson MS (1124; letter to Johnson, 23 January 1789) Sent to Johnson for the SMM on 23 January 1789, but not printed. Possibly suggested by The Archer’s March, which refers to Scottish superiority over both Romans and Norsemen. 18 eagles from Adria’s strand: Romans from the Adriatic 25 Camelon: On 26 August 1787 Burns had passed through ‘Camelon, the ancient Metropolis of the Picts, now a small village in the neighbourhood of Falkirk’ (Journal of a Tour in the Highlands, ed. J.C.Ewing (1927) 12). 29 the Anglian lion: the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria 40 Largs…and Loncartie: Alexander III defeated Haakon at Largs in 1263. Kenneth II is said to have defeated the Norsemen at Luncarty, Perth, in 990

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112 Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes Tune: Afton Water

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise; My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream! Thou stock dove whose echo resounds thro’ the glen, 5 Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den, Thou green crested lapwing thy screaming forbear, I charge you disturb not my slumbering Fair. How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighbouring hills, Far mark’d with the courses of clear, winding rills; 10

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There daily I wander as noon rises high, My flocks and my Mary’s sweet Cot in my eye. How pleasant thy banks and green vallies below, Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow; There oft as mild ev’ning weeps over the lea, 15 The sweet scented birk shades my Mary and me. Thy chrystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides, And winds by the cot where my Mary resides; How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave, As gathering sweet flowerets she stems thy clear wave. 20 Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, sweet River, the theme of my lays; My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream, Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream. SMM no. 386 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ birk birch Burns sent a copy of ‘Flow gently sweet Afton’ to Mrs Dunlop on 5 February 1789, with this note on the river which inspired it: There is a small river, Afton, that falls into Nith, near New Cumnock, which has some charming, wild, romantic scenery on its banks.—I have a particular pleasure in those little pieces of poetry such as our Scots songs, &c. where the names and landskip-features of rivers, lakes, or woodlands, that one knows, are introduced.—I attempted a compliment of that kind, to Afton as follows: I mean it for Johnson’s Musical Museum. (Letter 310, Letters I 370) There has been much debate as to the real-life identity—if any—of ‘Mary’. Burns’s brother Gilbert believed that she was Mary Campbell, ‘Highland Mary’. The air would appear to have been first published in SMM.

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113 O, sing a new Song to the L——! [Tune: French]

A parody of the language and rhythms of metrical psalm 96 in the Presbyterian Psalter, written in the spring of 1789 when George III was reported to have recovered from madness. Burns sent his New Psalm to the London Star, with a note signed ‘Duncan M’Leerie’ (the title of a traditional bawdy song). In one manuscript, the title is A Piece of new Psalmody said to be composed for, and sung on the late joyful solemnity—the twenty-third of April last, in a certain chapel of ease somewhere in the meridian of K-lm-rn-ck. Burns wrote to Mrs Dunlop on 4 May, I cannot say that my heart runs any risk of bursting…with the struggling emotions of gratitude.—G-d forgive me for speaking evil of dignities! (Letter 335, Letters I 403) Burns specifies no tune for this song, but he would have expected it to be sung to one of the twelve psalm-tunes authorised for use in the Church of Scotland from the late seventeenth century onwards. These psalm-tunes were identical in metre and interchangeable in use. Burns mentions three of them (‘Dundee’, ‘Martyrs’ and ‘Elgin’) in The Cotter’s Saturday Night. All three of those, however, are in minor keys. We have selected the major-key ‘French’ as suited to this aggressively satirical piece.

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O, sing a new Song to the L—! Make, all and every one, A joyful noise, ev’n for the king His Restoration.— The sons of Belial in the land 5 Did set their heads together; Come, let us sweep them off, said they, Like an o’erflowing river.— They set their heads together, I say, They set their heads together: 10 On right, and left, and every hand, We saw none to deliver.— Thou madest strong two chosen Ones, To quell the Wicked’s pride: That Young Man, great in Issachar 15 The burden-bearing Tribe.— And him, among the Princes chief In our Jerusalem, The Judge that’s mighty in thy law, The Man that fears thy name.—20 Yet they, even they, with all their might, Began to faint and fail; Even as two howling, ravening wolves To dogs do turn their tail:— Th’ Ungodly o’er the Just prevail’d, 25 For so thou hadst appointed, That thou might’st greater glory give Unto thine own Annointed.— And now thou hast restor’d our State, Pity our kirk also, 30 For she by tribulations

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Is now brought very low!— Consume that High-Place, PATRONAGE, From off thine holy hill; And in thy fury burn the book 35 Even of that man, McGILL.— Now hear our Prayer, accept our Song, And fight thy Chosen’s battle: We seek but little, L—, from thee, Thou kens we get as little.—40 Glenriddell MS

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114 Orthodox, Orthodox, who believe in John Knox Tune: Come, let us prepare

Orthodox, Orthodox, who believe in John Knox, Let me sound an alarm to your conscience; A heretic blast has been blawn i’ the West— That what is not Sense must be Nonsense Orthodox, That what is not Sense must be Nonsense.—5

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Doctor Mac, Doctor Mac, ye should streek on a rack, To strike Evildoers with terror; To join FAITH and SENSE upon any pretence Was heretic, damnable error, etc. Town of Ayr, Town of Ayr, it was rash, I declare, 10 To meddle wi’ mischief a brewing; Provost John is still deaf to the Church’s relief, And Orator Bob is its ruin, etc. D’rymple mild, D’rymple mild, tho’ your heart’s like a child, And your life like the new-driven snaw; 15 Yet that winna save ye, auld Satan maun have ye, For preaching that three ‘s ane and twa, etc. Calvin’s Sons, Calvin’s Sons, seize your spiritual guns— Ammunition ye never can need; Your HEARTS are the stuff will be POWDER enough, 20 And your SCULLS are a storehouse o’ LEAD, etc. Rumble John, Rumble John, mount the steps with a groan, Cry, the BOOK is with heresy cramm’d; Then lug out your ladle, deal brimstone like aidle, And roar ev’ry note o’ the D-MN’D, etc. 25 Simper James, Simper James, leave the fair Killie dames, There ‘s a holier chase in your view: I’ll lay on your head that the PACK ye’ll soon lead, For PUPPIES like you there ‘s but few, etc. Singet Sawnie, Singet Sawnie, are ye herding the PENNIE, 30 Unconscious what danger awaits? With a jump, yell and howl, alarm ev’ry soul, For Hannibal’s just at your gates, etc. Poet Willie, Poet Willie, gie the Doctor a volley Wi’ your ‘liberty’s chain’ and your wit: 35 O’er Pegasus side ye ne’er laid a stride,

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Ye only stood by where he sh—, etc. Andrew Gowk, Andrew Gowk, ye may slander the BOOK, And the BOOK nought the waur, let me tell ye: Ye’re rich and look big, but lay by hat and wig—40 And ye’ll hae a CALF’S-HEAD o’ sma’ value, etc. Barr Steenie, Barr Steenie, what mean ye, what mean ye? If ye’ll meddle nae mair wi’ the matter, Ye may hae some pretence, man, to havins and sense, man,— Wi’ people that ken you nae better, etc. 45 Jamie Goose, Jamie Goose, ye hae made but toom roose O’ hunting the wicked Lieutenant: But the Doctor’s your mark, for the L—d’s holy ark He has couper’d and ca’d a wrang pin in, etc. ***

Davie Rant, Davie Rant, wi’ a face like a saunt, 50 And a heart that wad poison a hog; Raise an impudent roar, like a breaker lee-shore, Or the KIRK will be tint in a bog, etc. Cessnock-side, Cessnock-side, wi’ your turkey-cock pride, O’ manhood but sma’ is your share; 55 Ye’ve the figure, it’s true, even your faes maun allow, And your friends dare na say ye hae mair, etc. Muirland Jock, Muirland Jock, whom the L—d made a rock To crush Common sense for her sins; If ill-manners were Wit, there ‘s no mortal so fit 60 To confound the poor Doctor at ance, etc. Daddie Auld, Daddie Auld, there ‘s a tod i’ the fauld, A tod meikle waur than the CLERK: Tho’ ye do little skaith ye’ll be in at the death, For if ye canna bite ye can bark, etc. 65 Holy Will, Holy Will, there was wit i’ your skull,

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When ye pilfer’d the alms o’ the poor; The timmer is scant, when ye’re ta’en for a saint, Wha should swing in a rape for an hour, etc. Poet Burns, Poet Burns, wi’ your priest-skelping turns, 70 Why desert ye your auld native shire? Tho’ your Muse is a gipsey, yet were she even tipsey, She could ca’ us nae waur than we are, Poet Burns, She could ca’ us nae waur than we are.— [Afton’s Laird, Afton’s Laird, when your pen can be spar’d, A copy o’ this I bequeath, On the same sicker score as I mention’d before, To that trusty auld Worthy, Clackleith, Afton’s Laird, To that trusty auld Worthy, Clackleith.] [Factor John, Factor John, whom the Lord made alone, And ne’er made another thy peer, Thy poor servant, the Bard, in respectful regard, Presents thee this token sincere, Factor John, Presents thee this token sincere.] Glenriddell MS streek stretch winna will not aidle ditch water, byre wash Killie Kilmarnock toom empty roose boast havins good manners, sense saunt saint tint lost tod fox fauld fold waur worse skaith damage timmer wood rape rope Burns’s footnotes 6

Doctor McGill, Ayr—

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12 Provost Ballantine— 13 Mr Aiken— 14 Dr Dalrymple, Ayr— 22 John Russel, Kilmarnock— 26 Jas. McKindlay, Kilmck.— 30 A.Moodie, Riccartoun— 34 Willm. Peebles in Newton upon Ayr, a Poetaster, who, among many other things, published an Ode on the Centenary of the Revolution in which was this line—‘And bound in liberty’s endearing chain’— 38 Dr. Andrew Mitchel, Monkton— 42 Stephen Young, Barr— 46 Jas. Young in New Cumnock, who had lately been foiled in an ecclesiastic prosecution against a Lieut. Mitchel— 50 Davd. Grant, Ochiltree— 54 George Smith, Galston— 58 John Shepherd, Muirkirk— 62 Willm. Auld, Mauchlin; for the Clerk, See, Holy Willie’s prayer— 66 An E[lder] in M[auchlin]e—

Burns had moved south to Dumfriesshire by the autumn of 1789, when this satire was written, but he remained keenly interested in church disputes in his native county. One of his New Licht Ayrshire friends, Dr William McGill (1732–1807), was minister in the second charge in Ayr, along with his senior colleague Dr Dalrymple. McGill’s publication in 1786 of A Practical Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ provoked debate. In 1788 Dr William Peebles, minister of Newton-upon-Ayr, with whom Burns had quarrelled before, preached and published a sermon on the centenary of the Whig Revolution, in which he accused McGill of heresy. This led to McGill’s being formally charged with heresy before the synod of Glasgow and Ayr. In May 1789 the general assembly overruled the synod’s order to the presbytery of Ayr to investigate the charge, but instructed the presbytery to maintain purity of doctrine. A committee of the presbytery was set up in July 1789 to consider McGill’s teaching. The following year McGill expressed regret at the upset caused by his teaching, and undertook to conform in future to the doctrine of the Kirk. In a letter to Mrs Dunlop of 24 November 1787, Burns wrote that he had it in mind to attack McGill’s critics: ‘I shall keep no measure with the savages, but fly at them with the faulcons of Ridicule, or run them down with the blood-hounds of Satire, as lawful game wherever I start them’ (Letter 152A, Letters I 175). Mrs Dunlop advised him shrewdly that ‘Those that deserve it are too mean game for genius to hurt, and the satire too local for sale’ (Robert Burns and Mrs Dunlop: Correspondence, ed. William Wallace (1898) 39. Cf. letter of 1 August 1789, 195). But although Burns eventually gave up the idea of

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publishing a satire on the subject, he kept to the plan of writing one, and sent Mrs Dunlop a draft of this satirical song with a letter of 17 July 1789, in which he noted ‘If I should fail of rendering some of the Doctor’s foes ridiculous, I shall at least gratify my resentment in his behalf’ (Letter 352, Letters I 422). Kinsley points out that the verse-form has a long history of use in squibs and drinkingsongs (Commentary 1308). Burns may have recalled verses printed in the Glasgow Mercury in December 1788:

Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox, Thou’rt knock’d down like an Ox By honest Will Pitt’s argumentation: ’Twas a cruel mistake, etc. More than one musical air is named in his manuscripts, which suggests that he did not have a strong preference. The melody printed here is that in Dick.

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115 O Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut Music by Allan Masterton

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O Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut, And Rob and Allan cam to see; Three blyther hearts, that lee lang night, Ye wad na found in Christendie. CHORUS We are na fou, we’re nae that fou, 5 But just a drappie in our e’e; The cock may craw, the day may daw, And ay we’ll taste the barley bree. Here are we met, three merry boys, Three merry boys I trow are we; 10 And mony a night we’ve merry been, And mony mae we hope to be! We are na fou, etc. It is the moon, I ken her horn, That’s blinkin in the lift sae hie; She shines sae bright to wyle us hame, 15 But by my sooth she’ll wait a wee! We are na fou, etc. Wha first shall rise to gang awa, A cuckold, coward loun is he! Wha first beside his chair shall fa’, He is the king amang us three! 20 We are na fou, etc. SMM no. 291 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ peck measure maut malt lee lang live-long wad na would not have Christendie Christendom fou drunk drappie little craw crow

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daw dawn barley bree malt liquor, whisky trow believe lift sky hie high wyle lure hame home loun rogue Written in 1789. The air is Masterton’s; the song mine. The occasion of it was this.—Mr Wm Nicol, of the High School, Edinr, during the autumn vacation being at Moffat, honest Allan, who was at that time on a visit to Dalswinton, and I went to pay Nicol a visit. We had such a joyous meeting that Mr Masterton and I each in our own way should celebrate the business. (Notes 52) Music text © David Johnson, 1993. Source of music: SMM no. 291. [Bar 9: voice, notes 7–8 originally dotted quaver, semiquaver, keyboard note 1 originally F sharp, notes 3–4 originally quavers. Bar 10: voice notes 8–9 originally quavers, keyboard note 4 originally D.Bar 11: keyboard note 4 originally a crotchet rest.] Allan Masterton, who was described by Burns as ‘one of the worthiest men in the world, and a man of real genius’, was a writing master in Stevenlaw’s Close in Edinburgh High Street. He wrote the music for several other Burns songs, including ‘The Braes o’ Ballochmyle’, ‘On Hearing a Young Lady Sing’, and ‘Ye gallants bright, I rede ye right’, which Burns wrote ‘out of compliment to Miss Ann Masterton, the daughter of my friend Allan Masterton’. Dick rightly states that ‘both verse and music are inspirations’. Words and melody fit together easily and naturally: the entire song, and above all the chorus, conveys a mood of cheerful abandon to the occasion.

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116 There was five Carlins in the South Tune: Chevy chase

Written during the contested Election between Sir James Johnston and Captn. Miller for the Dumfries district of Boroughs.—

There was five Carlins in the South, They fell upon a scheme, To send a lad to London town To bring them tidings hame.— Not only bring them tidings hame, 5 But do their errands there; And aiblins gowd and honor baith Might be that laddie’s share.— There was Maggy by the banks o’Nith, A dame wi’ pride enough; 10 And Marjory o’ the mony lochs, A Carlin auld and teugh: And blinkin Bess of Annandale That dwelt on Solway-side; And Brandy Jean that took her gill 15

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In Galloway sae wide: And black Jöan frae Crighton-peel O’ gipsey kith and kin: Five wighter Carlins were na found The South Coontrie within.—20 To send a lad to London town, They met upon a day; And mony a knight and mony a laird That errand fain wad gae.— O mony a knight and mony a laird 25 That errand fain wad gae; But nae ane could their fancy please, O ne’er a ane but tway.— The first ane was a belted knight, Bred of a Border band, 30 And he wad gae to London town, Might nae man him withstand.— And he wad do their errands weel, And meikle he wad say; And ilka ane at London Court 35 Wad bid to him, Gude-day! The niest came in a Sodger-boy And spak wi’ modest grace, And he wad gang to London town, If sae their pleasure was.—40 He wad na hecht them courtly gifts, Nor meikle speech pretend; But he wad hecht an honest heart Wad ne’er desert his friend.— Now wham to chuse, and wham refuse, 45 At strife thir Carlins fell;

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For some had Gentle Folk to please, And some wad please themsel.— Then up spak mim-mou’d Meg o’ Nith, And she spak up wi’ pride, 50 And she wad send the Sodger-lad Whatever might betide.— For the Auld Gudeman o’ London Court, She didna care a pin; But she wad send the Sodger-lad, 55 To greet his eldest son.— Then started Bess of Annandale, A deadly aith she’s taen, That she wad vote the Border-Knight, Tho’ she should vote her lane.—60 ***

‘For far-off fowls hae feathers fair, ‘And fools o’ change are fain; ‘But I hae try’d this Border-knight, ‘I’ll try him yet again.’— Says black Jöan frae Crighton-peel, 65 A Carlin stoor and grim; ‘The Auld Gudeman, or the Young Gudeman, ‘For me may sink or swim. ‘For fools will prate o’Right, and Wrang, ‘While knaves laugh them to scorn; 70 ‘But the Sodger’s friends hae blawn the best, ‘So he shall bear the horn.’— Then Brandy Jean spak o’er her drink, ‘Ye weel ken, kimmers a’, ‘The Auld Gudeman o’ London Court, 75 ‘His back’s been at the wa’:

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‘And mony a friend that kiss’d his caup, ‘Is now a fremit wight; ‘But it’s ne’er be sae wi’ Brandy Jean, ‘We’ll send the Border-knight.’—80 Then slaw rase Marjory o’ the lochs, And wrinkled was her brow; Her ancient weed was russet-grey, Her auld Scots heart was true.— ‘There’s some Great Folk set light by me, 85 ‘I set as light by them; ‘But I will send to London town ‘Whom I lo’e best at hame.’— So how this weighty plea may end, Nae mortal wight can tell: 90 God grant the king, and ilka man, May look weel to themsel.— Glenriddell MS carlins old women aiblins perhaps gowd gold teugh tough wighter stronger fain wad gae gladly would go nae ane no one tway two niest next Sodger Soldier spak spoke hecht promise mim-mou’d demurely reticent Gudeman master didna did not aith oath her lane on her own fain fond blawn blown kimmers gossips kiss’d his caup drunk from the same vessel with him in token of friendship

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fremit strange slaw rase slowly rose Burns’s footnotes 9

Dumfries

11

Lochmaben

13

Annan

15

Kirkcudbright

17

Sanquhar (Crighton old Castle, or, Peel)—

A political ballad inspired by the election contest for representation in parliament of the Dumfriesshire burghs—Dumfries, Lochmaben, Annan, Kircudbright and Sanquhar. Seeking re-election was Sir James Johnstone of Westerhall, a member of an old West Border family. He was opposed by the eventual winner of the contest, Captain Patrick Miller, son of Burns’s landlord, Miller of Dalswinton, who had the powerful backing of the Duke of Queensberry. Burns sent The Five Carlins’ to Mrs Dunlop on 2 October 1789, with the comment: In this country we are just now Election-mad.—Sir Jas Johnston…has now opposite interests to the Great Man of the place, Queensberry.—His Grace is keenly attached to the Buff and blue Party: renegadoes and Apostates are, you know, always keen.—My Landlord’s Son, a young Officer of twenty, is his Grace’s creature, and is supported by the Foxites; Sir James, on the other hand, is backed by Ministerial influence.—The Boroughs are much divided, and veer about with much uncertainty. (Letter 363, Letters I 440–1) Burns’s stance in ‘The Five Carlins’ is impartial. Later, although by instinct a Whig sympathizer, he swung to the Tory side because he thought little of Miller and detested Queensberry. The air is an adapted version of Chevy chase.

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117 Up and waur them a’, Jamie Tune: Up and waur them a’, Jamie

CHORUS Up and waur them a’, Jamie, Up and waur them a’; The Johnstones hae the guidin o’t, Ye turncoat Whigs awa! The Laddies by the banks o’ Nith 5 Wad trust his Grace wi’ a’, Jamie; But he’ll sair them, as he sair’d the King— Turn tail and rin awa, Jamie.

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Up and waur them, etc. The day he stude his country’s friend, Or gied her faes a claw, Jamie, 10 Or frae puir man a blessin wan, That day the Duke ne’er saw, Jamie. Up and waur them, etc. But wha is he, his country’s boast? Like him there is na twa, Jamie; There’s no a callant tents the kye, 15 But kens o’ Westerha’, Jamie. Up and waur them, etc. To end the wark, here’s Whistlebirk, Lang may his whistle blaw, Jamie; And Maxwell true, o’ sterling blue; And we’ll be Johnstones a’, Jamie. 20 Up and waur them, etc. Works of Burns, ed. William Scott Douglas (1877) sair serve rin awa run away waur overcome, worst stude stood gied gave faes foes claw blow, drubbing puir poor wan won callant boy tents looks after kye cattle wark combat A political ballad written in November or December 1789, during the Dumfriesshire election. By this stage, Burns had decided to support Johnstone, in part at least because he intensely disliked the Duke of Queensberry, who had sponsored the rival candidate, Miller. An earlier version of the song includes the verse

The turn-coat Duke his King forsook,

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When his back was at the wa’, man: The rattan ran wi’ a’ his clan, For fear the house should fa’, man. ‘Maxwell true’ (l. 19) is Robert Maxwell, provost of Lochmaben, described by Burns as ‘one of the soundest headed, best hearted, whisky-drinking fellows in the south of Scotland…devoted to Sir James’ (Letter 373, Letters I 455). For the air Up and waur them a’, see no. 86.

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118 I sing of a Whistle, a Whistle of worth Tune: The Whistle

I sing of a Whistle, a Whistle of worth, I sing of a Whistle, the pride of the North, Was brought to the court of our good Scottish king, And long with this Whistle all Scotland shall ring. Old Loda,* still rueing the arm of Fingal, 5 The god of the bottle sends down from his hall— ‘This Whistle’s your challenge, to Scotland get o’er,

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‘And drink them to hell, Sir! or ne’er see me more!’ Old poets have sung, and old chronicles tell, What champions ventured, what champions fell; 10 The son of great Loda was conqueror still, And blew on the Whistle their requiem shrill. Till Robert, the lord of the Cairn and the Scaur, Unmatched at the bottle, unconquered in war, He drank his poor god-ship as deep as the sea, 15 No tide of the Baltic e’er drunker than he. Thus Robert, victorious, the trophy has gained, Which now in his house has for ages remained; Till three noble chieftains, and all of his blood, The jovial contest again have renewed. 20 Three joyous good fellows with hearts clear of flaw; Craigdarroch so famous for wit, worth, and law; And trusty Glenriddel, so skilled in old coins; And gallant Sir Robert, deep-read in old wines. Craigdarroch began with a tongue smooth as oil, 25 Desiring Glenriddel to yield up the spoil; Or else he would muster the heads of the clan, And once more, in claret, try which was the man. ‘By the gods of the ancients!’ Glenriddel replies, ‘Before I surrender so glorious a prize, 30 ‘I’ll conjure the ghost of the great Rorie More,† ‘And bumper his horn with him twenty times o’er.’ Sir Robert, a soldier, no speech would pretend, But he ne’er turned his back on his foe—or his friend, Said, toss down the Whistle, the prize of the field, 35 And knee-deep in claret he’d die or he’d yield. To the board of Glenriddel our heroes repair, So noted for drowning of sorrow and care;

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But for wine and for welcome not more known to fame, Than the sense, wit, and taste of a sweet lovely dame. 40 A bard was selected to witness the fray, And tell future ages the feats of the day; A bard who detested all sadness and spleen, And wished that Parnassus a vineyard had been. The dinner being over, the claret they ply, 45 And every new cork is a new spring of joy; In the bands of old friendship and kindred so set, And the bands grew the tighter the more they were wet. ***

Gay Pleasure ran riot as bumpers ran o’er; Bright Phoebus ne’er witnessed so joyous a corps, 50 And vowed that to leave them he was quite forlorn, Till Cynthia hinted he’d see them next morn. Six bottles a-piece had well wore out the night, When gallant Sir Robert, to finish the fight, Turned o’er in one bumper a bottle of red, 55 And swore ‘twas the way that their ancestor did. Then worthy Glenriddel, so cautious and sage, No longer the warfare, ungodly, would wage; A high ruling elder to wallow in wine! He left the foul business to folks less divine. 60 The gallant Sir Robert fought hard to the end; But who can with Fate and Quart Bumpers contend? Though Fate said, a hero should perish in light; So uprose bright Phoebus—and down fell the knight. Next uprose our Bard, like a prophet in drink:—65 ‘Craigdarroch, thou’lt soar when creation shall sink! ‘But if thou would flourish immortal in rhyme, ‘Come—one bottle more—and have at the sublime!

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‘Thy line, that have struggled for freedom with Bruce, ‘Shall heroes and patriots ever produce: 70 ‘So thine be the laurel, and mine be the bay; The field thou hast won, by yon bright god of day!’ SMM no. 314 (1792); Poems (1793) *See Ossian’s Caric-thura †See Johnson’s tour to the Hebrides

This song celebrates a drinking-match which took place at Friar’s Carse, home of Burns’s neighbour Robert Riddell, on 16 October 1789. Burns wrote to Riddell on that day, ‘The elements…seem to take the matter very quietly: they did not even usher in this morning with triple suns and a shower of blood, symbolical of the three potent heroes and the mighty claret-shed of the day’ (Letter 365, Letters I 443). It is likely, but not certain, that Burns was ‘selected to witness the fray’ (ll. 41–4). Burns was probably present at Friar’s Carse on the evening in question, though this has been disputed. According to his wife’s subsequent recollection, ‘the Bard, tho’ present at the contest, came home in his ordinary trim. Tho’ he drank, perhaps, like some others, he was not required to keep pace with the champions. The song was composed soon after the drinking bout…’ (Chambers-Wallace (1896) III 109). Kinsley notes that Burns’s historical account of the whistle coming to Scotland is inaccurate. The air is in the SMM no. 314 (1792) IV. Stenhouse was informed that Robert Riddell composed it (Stenhouse (1853) 306).

Songs and notes

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119 Thou ling’ring star, with less’ning ray Tune: Captain Cook’s death

Thou ling’ring star, with less’ning ray, That lov’st, to greet the early morn, Again thou usher’st in the day My Mary from my soul was torn. O Mary, dear departed shade! 5 Where is thy place of blissful rest?

Songs and notes

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See’st thou thy lover lowly laid? Hear’st thou the groans that rend his breast? That sacred hour can I forget, Can I forget the hallowed grove, 10 Where, by the winding Ayr, we met, To live one day of Parting Love? Eternity can not efface Those records dear of transports past; Thy image at our last embrace, 15 Ah, little thought we ‘twas our last! Ayr gurgling kissed his pebbled shore, O’er hung with wild-woods, thick’ning, green; The fragrant birch, and hawthorn hoar, Twined, am’rous, round the raptured scene: 20 The flowers sprang wanton to be prest, The birds sang love on ev’ry spray; Till too, too soon the glowing west Proclaimed the speed of wingèd day. Still o’er these scenes my mem’ry wakes, 25 And fondly broods with miser-care; Time but th’ impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear: My Mary, dear departed Shade! Where is thy place of blissful rest! 30 See’st thou thy Lover lowly laid! Hear’st thou the groans that rend his breast! SMM 279 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by R.Burns’ In a letter to Mrs Dunlop of 8 November 1789 Burns refers to this as ‘a Song I made the other day, of which your opinion, as I am too much interested in the subject of it, to be a Critic’ (Letter 371, Letters I 451). The song seems to have been written on or about the third anniversary of the death of Mary Campbell, ‘Highland Mary’. On the Currie MS Burns has scribbled ‘Song—addressed to Mary in heaven—!!!’ The air was written by Lucy Johnson.

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120 I’ll tell you a tale of a Wife Tune: Auld Sir Symon

I’ll tell you a tale of a Wife, And she was a Whig and a Saunt; She liv’d a most sanctified life, But whyles she was fash’d wi’ her—.— Fal lal, etc. Poor woman! she gaed to the Priest, 5 And till him she made her complaint; ‘There’s naething that troubles my breast ‘Sae sair as the sins o’ my—.— ‘Sin that I was herdin at hame, ‘Till now I’m three score and ayont, 10 ‘I own it wi’ sin and wi’ shame ‘I’ve led a sad life wi’ my—.— He bade her to clear up her brow, And no be discourag’d upon’t; For holy gude women enow 15 Were mony times waur’t wi’ their—.— It’s naught but Beelzebub’s art,

Songs and notes

391

But that’s the mair sign of a saunt, He kens that ye’re pure at the heart, Sae levels his darts at your—.—20 What signifies Morals and Works, Our works are no wordy a runt! It’s Faith that is sound, orthodox, That covers the fauts o’ your—.— Were ye o’ the Reprobate race, 25 Created to sin and be brunt, O then it would alter the case If ye should gae wrang wi’ your—.— But you that is Called and Free Elekit and chosen a saunt, 30 Will’t break the Eternal Decree Whatever ye do wi’ your—.—? And now with a sanctify’d kiss Let’s kneel and renew covenant: It’s this—and it’s this—and it’s this—35 That settles the pride o’ your—.— Devotion blew up to a flame; No words can do justice upon ‘t; The honest auld woman gaed hame Rejoicing and clawin her—.—40 Then high to her memory charge; And may he who takes it affront, Still ride in Love’s channel at large, And never mak port in a—!!! MMC Whig Puritan Saunt saint whyles from time to time fash’d troubled

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392

till to sair sorely ayont beyond enow enough waur worse wordy worthy runt cabbage stalk brunt burnt wrang wrong Elekit elected clawin scratching Sent to Provost Maxwell of Lochmaben on 20 December 1789, with the comment I shall betake myself to a Subject ever fertile of themes, a Subject, the turtle-feast of the Sons of Satan, and the delicious, secret Sugar-plumb of the Babes of Grace; a Subject, sparkling with all the jewels that Wit can find in the mines of Genius, and pregnant with all the stores of Learning, from Moses and Confucius to Franklin and Priestly—in short, may it please Your Lordship, I intend to write BAUDY! (Letter 378, Letters I 462) The song is in the long tradition of satire on puritan hypocrisy. The air, Auld Sir Symon, was popular north and south of the Border. One of Squire Western’s favourites ‘every Afternoon, as soon as he was drunk’ (Fielding, Tom Jones (1749) IV v), it was available to Burns in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) VII no. 6.

Songs and notes

393

121 The noble Maxwells and their powers Tune: Nithsdale’s welcome hame

The noble Maxwells and their powers Are coming o’er the Border; And they’ll gae big Terreagles’ towers, And set them a’ in order. And they declare Terreagles fair, 5 For their abode they choose it;

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There’s no a heart in a’ the land, But’s lighter at the news o’t! Tho’ stars in skies may disappear, And angry tempests gather; 10 The happy hour may soon be near That brings us pleasant weather: The weary night o’ care and grief May hae a joyfu’ morrow, So dawning day has brought relief, 15 Fareweel our night o’ sorrow. SMM no. 364 (1792), signed R, ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 88 big build fareweel farewell Burns here pays tribute to a famous Nithsdale Jacobite family. William Maxwell, fifth Earl of Nithsdale, was helped by his wife’s courage to escape from the Tower of London in 1715, and died in Rome in 1744. His son John succeeded to the estate and assumed the title. He died in 1776, and in 1789 his daughter Winifred, the wife of William Constable of Everingham, began to rebuild Terreagles House in Kirkudbrightshire. Burns met her in that year and wrote to her that she and he were ‘Common Sufferers in a Cause where even to be unfortunate is glorious, the Cause of Heroic Loyalty’ (Letter 377, Letters I 461). Sir Walter Scott commented to his son-in-law J.G.Lockhart in 1828, I see, by the by, that your life of Burns is going to press again, and therefore send you a few letters, which may be of use to you. In one of them (to that singular old curmudgeon, Lady Winnifred Constable) you will see he plays high Jacobite, and on that account it is curious; though I imagine his Jacobitism, like my own, belonged to the fancy rather than the reason. (J.G.Lockhart, Life of Scott (1914) V 211) The tune is by Burns’s friend and neighbour Robert Riddell, who wrote in the Interleaved Museum, ‘I composed this tune, and imparting to my friend Mr Burns the name I meant to give it, he composed for the Tune the words here inserted’ (Notes 71).

Songs and notes

395

122 Green sleeves and tartan ties Tune: Greensleeves

Green sleeves and tartan ties Mark my true-love where she lies; I’ll be at her or she rise, My fiddle and I thegither. Be it by the chrystal burn, 5 Be it by the milk-white thorn, I shall rouse her in the morn, My fiddle and I thegither. Alloway MS or before burn stream

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Burns’s rehandling of a traditional song, originating in the Elizabethan era, about an inconstant mistress, Greensleeves. Herd’s MSS contain a version which lacks his delicacy of touch (Hecht 177). This tune version is derived from the set in the Gillespie fiddle-book, Perth, 1768.

Songs and notes

397

123 Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare Tune: Chevy chase

Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, As ever trode on airn; But now she’s floating down the Nith, And past the Mouth o’ Cairn. Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, 5 And rode thro’ thick and thin; But now she’s floating down the Nith, And wanting even the skin. Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, And ance she bore a priest; 10 But now she’s floating down the Nith, For Solway fish a feast. Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, And the priest he rode her sair: And much oppressed and bruised she was—15 As priest-rid cattle are, etc. etc.

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398

Cromek, Reliques (1808) 108 airn iron ance once sair hard cattle beasts Burns sent these verses to William Nichol on 9 February 1790, along with a letter in which he wrote: That d-mned mare of yours is dead. I would freely have given her price to have saved her; she has vexed me beyond description…. She was never crossed for riding above half a score of times by me or in my keeping. I drew her in the plough, one of three, for one poor week. I refused fiftyfive shillings for her, which was the highest bode I could squeeze for her. I fed her up and had her in fine order for Dumfries fair; when four or five days before …she was seized with an unaccountable disorder in the sinews, or somewhere in the bones of the neck… I have…strung four or five barbarous stanzas, to the tune of Chevy Chase, by way of Elegy. (Letter 390, Letters II 11–12) The mare was perhaps named after Margaret Nicholson, who in 1786 had attempted to stab George III.

Songs and notes

399

124 My Sandy gied to me a ring Tune: I love my love in secret

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My Sandy gied to me a ring Was a’ beset wi’ diamonds fine; But I gied him a far better thing, I gied my heart in pledge o’ his ring. CHORUS My Sandy O, my Sandy O, 5 My bonie, bonie Sandy O; Tho’ the love that I owe to thee I dare na show, Yet I love my love in secret, my Sandy O! My Sandy brak a piece o’ gowd, While down his cheeks the saut tears row’d; 10 He took a hauf and gied it to me, And I’ll keep it till the hour I die. My Sandy O, etc. SMM no. 204 (1790) gied gave brak broke gowd gold saut salt row’d rolled hauf half Listed as ‘Mr Burns’s old words’ in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) no. 16. The first stanza and chorus are Burns’s revision of a traditional song. Lines 9–12 are his own. It was customary at one time in Scotland for lovers who were to be temporarily separated to break a silver coin in two, with each guarding half as a pledge of loyalty. The seventeenth-century air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1745).

Songs and notes

401

125 O, wilt thou go wi’ me, sweet Tibbie Dunbar? Tune: Johnny McGill

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O, wilt thou go wi’ me, sweet Tibbie Dunbar? O, wilt thou go wi’ me, sweet Tibbie Dunbar? Wilt thou ride on a horse, or be drawn in a car, Or walk by my side, O sweet Tibbie Dunbar? I care na thy daddie, his lands and his money; 5 I care na thy kin, sae high and sae lordly: But say that thou’lt hae me for better or waur, And come in thy coatie, sweet Tibbie Dunbar. SMM no. 207 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 53v waur worse coatie petticoat, skirt A note in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) describes this song cryptically as ‘Mr. Burns’s old words’. The same formula is used about many other songs; it indicates that Burns had some part in writing or revising the song in question. The invitation in the first two lines is traditional (cf. ‘Will ye go to the Highlands Leezie Lindsay’), but Burns gives character and individuality to the suitor, whose only interest is in Tibbie herself, not in her father’s wealth or social standing. This opposition between love and money is one which recurs in his work. The air has been taken to be Irish. In the Interleaved Museum, however, Burns’s friend Robert Riddell ascribes it to a Girvan fiddler, John McGill (Notes 68).

Songs and notes

403

126 The taylor fell thro’ the bed, thimble an’ a’ Tune: I rede ye beware o’ the ripells young man

The taylor fell thro’ the bed, thimble an’ a’, The taylor fell thro’ the bed, thimble an’ a’; The blankets were thin, and the sheets they were sma’, The taylor fell thro’ the bed, thimble an’ a’! The sleepy bit lassie she dreaded nae ill, 5 The sleepy bit lassie she dreaded nae ill; The weather was cauld and the lassie lay still, She thought that a taylor could do her nae ill. Gie me the groat again, cany young man,

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Gie me the groat again, cany young man; 10 The day it is short and the night it is lang, The dearest siller that ever I wan. There’s somebody weary wi’ lying her lane, There’s somebody weary wi’ lying her lane, There’s some that are dowie, I trow wad be fain 15 To see the bit taylor come skipping again. SMM no. 212 (1790); Hastie MS, f. 26 bit young, slight groat silver coin of small value, 3d Scots cany knowing siller silver, money her lane alone, by herself dowie sad trow believe fain content Burns comments on this song, This air is the march of the Corporation of Tailors. The 2nd and 4th stanzas are mine’ (Notes 43). He has in fact brought together and given fresh meaning to two fragments of traditional song; and by changing the last line of stanza 3 from ‘It’s a dear-won tipence to lie wi’ a man’ (in the Hastie MS) to ‘the dearest siller that ever I wan’ he has hinted at love as well as comedy—‘dearest’ is ambiguous. The air dates from the seventeenth century.

Songs and notes

405

127 Ay, waukin, O Tune: Ay, waukin, O

CHORUS Ay, waukin, O, Waukin still and wearie! Sleep I can get nane For thinking on my dearie. Simmer’s a pleasant time: 5 Flowers of ev’ry colour; The water rins o’er the heugh, And I long for my true lover.

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Ay, waukin, etc. When I sleep I dream, When I wauk I’m irie; 10 Sleep I can get nane For thinking on my dearie. Ay, waukin, etc. Lanely night comes on, A’ the lave are sleepin: I think on my bony lad 15 And I bleer my een wi’ greetin. Ay, waukin, etc. SMM no. 213 (1790) simmer summer rins runs heugh steep bank waukin awake, sleepless dearie beloved irie apprehensive lanely lonely lave rest One of Burns’s most poignant love songs. It is based on a traditional fragment in David Herd’s manuscripts:

O wat, wat—O wat and weary! Sleep I can get nane For thinking on my deary. A’ the night I wak A’ the day I weary, Sleep I can get nane For thinkin on my dearie. (Hecht 240) Burns has expanded this idea, keeping the mood of the original (and in his chorus the phrasing), and perfectly matching the whole song to a slow air, which probably dates from before the eighteenth century. SMM printed two, slightly different, versions of the tune, nos. 213 and 382. The music given here follows SMM no. 382.

Songs and notes

407

128 Ye gallants bright, I red you right Tune: Bonie Ann

Ye gallants bright, I red you right, Beware o’ bonie Ann; Her comely face sae fu’ o’ grace, Your heart she will trepan:

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Her een sae bright, like stars by night, 5 Her skin is like the swan; Sae jimply lac’d her genty waist, That sweetly ye might span. Youth, grace and love attendant move, And pleasure leads the van: 10 In a’ their charms and conquering arms, They wait on bonie Ann. The captive bands may chain the hands, But loove enslaves the man: Ye gallants braw, I red you a’, 15 Beware o’ bonie Ann. SMM no. 215 (1790), signed X red advise trepan inveigle, beguile jimply closely genty slender loove love ‘I composed this song out of compliment to Miss Ann Masterton, the daughter of my friend Allan Masterton’ (Notes 43). The air is by Alan Masterton. Ann Masterton subsequently married a doctor from Bath, and died in 1834.

Songs and notes

409

129 My wife’s a wanton wee thing Tune: My wife’s a wanton wee thing

CHORUS My wife’s a wanton wee thing, My wife’s a wanton wee thing, My wife’s a wanton wee thing, She winna be guided by me.

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She play’d the loon or she was married, 5 She play’d the loon or she was married, She play’d the loon or she was married, She’ll do it again or she die. She sell’d her coat and she drank it, She sell’d her coat and she drank it, 10 She row’d herself in a blanket, She winna be guided for me. She mind’t na when I forbade her, She mind’t na when I forbade her, I took a rung and I claw’d her, 15 And a braw gude bairn was she. SMM no. 217 (1790) loon fool or before sell’d sold row’d wrapped mind’t remembered rung cudgel claw’d beat bairn child The first two stanzas occur, with minor variations in David Herd’s collection; but most if not all of the second half of the song is Burns’s own. The tune had been printed in several eighteenth-century collections, including Stewart’s Reels (1762) 30. Burns later wrote a different set of words to it; cf. no. 217 ‘She is a winsome wee thing’.

Songs and notes

411

130 Lang hae we parted been Tune: Laddie lie near me

Lang hae we parted been, Lassie, my dearie; Now we are met again, Lassie, lie near me! CHORUS Near me, near me, 5 Lassie, lie near me, Lang hast thou lien thy lane, Lassie, lie near me. A’ that I hae endur’d, Lassie, my dearie, 10 Here in thy arms is cur’d, Lassie lie near me.

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Near me, etc. SMM no. 218 (1790) lien lain thy lane on your own The first verse and chorus are probably traditional, the second verse original. Listed in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) as ‘Mr. Burns’s old words’, and printed under the heading ‘Old Words’. The air was known to Burns from the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1760) XII no. 5. For his later attempt to match it with words, cf. no. 288 and note.

Songs and notes

413

131 When rosy May comes in wi’ flowers Tune: The gardener’s march

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414

When rosy May comes in wi’ flowers, To deck her gay, green-spreading bowers, Then busy, busy are his hours, The gard’ner wi’ his paidle. The crystal waters gently fa’, 5 The merry birds are lovers a’, The scented breezes round him blaw, The gard’ner wi’ his paidle. When purple morning starts the hare To steal upon her early fare; 10 Then thro’ the dews he maun repair, The gard’ner wi’ his paidle. When Day, expiring in the west, The curtain draws of Nature’s rest; He flies to her arms, he lo’es the best, 15 The gard’ner wi’ his paidle. SMM no. 220 (1790), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 52 paidle hoe Burns comments, ‘The air is the gardiner’s march. The title of the song only is old, the rest is mine’ (Notes 45). This unjustly neglected song is cast in deftly Scotticized English, part ‘polite’ diction and part colloquial. Did Burns possibly recall that his father had at one time been a professional gardener? The lilting melody is included in Aird’s Airs (1782) I no. 177. Dick comments, ‘I doubt whether it is an authentic Scottish melody, and whether it is much older than its appearance in Aird’s volume’ (Dick 390).

Songs and notes

415

132 On a bank of flowers in a summer day Tune: The bashful lover

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On a bank of flowers in a summer day, For summer lightly drest, The youthful, blooming Nelly lay, With love and sleep opprest; When Willie, wand’ring thro’ the wood, 5 Who for her favour oft had su’d; He gaz’d, he wish’d, hefear’d, he blush’d, And trembled where he stood. Her closed eyes like weapons sheath’d Were seal’d in soft repose; 10 Her lips, still as she fragrant breath’d It richer dy’d the rose. The springing lilies sweetly prest, Wild, wanton kiss’d her rival breast, He gaz’d, he wish’d, he fear’d, he blush’d, 15 His bosom ill at rest. Her robes light waving in the breeze, Her tender limbs embrace; Her lovely form, her native ease, All harmony and grace: 20 Tumultuous tides his pulses roll, A faltering, ardent kiss he stole; He gaz’d, he wish’d, he fear’d, he blush’d, And sigh’d his very soul. As flies the partridge from the brake 25 On fear-inspirèd wings, So Nelly starting, half-awake, Away affrighted springs: But Willy follow’d,—as he should, He overtook her in the wood; 30 He vow’d, he pray’d, he found the maid Forgiving all and good. SMM no. 223 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’

Songs and notes

417

A recasting by Burns of an English song by Theobald, included in The Tea-Table Miscellany (1724). The theme of bashful lover and coy maiden is a common one in pastoral verse of the Restoration and eighteenth century. Burns matches his description and rhythm to the air, The bashful lover, first printed in Watts’s Musical Miscellany (1729) I 30.

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133 My love, she’s but a lassie yet Tune: My love, she’s but a lassie yet

My love, she’s but a lassie yet, My love, she’s but a lassie yet; We’ll let her stand a year or twa, She’ll no be half sae saucy yet; I rue the day I sought her, O! 5 I rue the day I sought her, O! Wha gets her needs na say he’s woo’d, But he may say he’s bought her, O! Come draw a drap o’ the best o’t yet,

Songs and notes

419

Come draw a drap o’ the best o’t yet: 10 Gae seek for pleasure whare ye will, But here I never misst it yet. We’re a’ dry wi’ drinking o’t, We’re a’ dry wi’ drinking o’t: The minister kisst the fiddler’s wife, 15 He could na preach for thinkin o’t. SMM no. 225 (1790); Hastie MS, f. 53 The first two lines were traditional, and the final stanza had appeared in a version of ‘Green grow the rashes O’ in David Herd’s manuscripts. The air had been printed in Bremner’s Reels (1757) as Miss Farquharson’s Reel and as My love she’s but a lassie yet in Aird’s Airs (1782). Burns’s song is built up from the title phrase, with the exasperated male going on to find solace in drink. Perhaps James Kinsley is right in supposing that lines 9–16 had already been brought together in a ‘Bacchanalian’ before Burns fused them with his first two stanzas in a new unity. At any rate, what begins as a song about love changes direction and becomes an escapist drinking song.

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134 ’Twas past one o’-clock in a cauld frosty morning Tune: Cold frosty morning

Songs and notes

421

’Twas past one o’-clock in a cauld frosty morning When cankert November blaws over the plain, I heard the kirk-bell repeat the loud warning, As restless I sought for sweet slumber in vain: Then up I arose, the silver moon shining bright; 5 Mountains and vallies appearing all hoary white; Forth I would go amid the pale, silent night, To visit the fair one, the cause of my pain. Sae gently I staw to my lovely Maid’s chamber, And rapp’d at her window, low down on my knee; 10 Begging that she would awauk from sweet slumber, Awauk from sweet slumber and pity me: For, that a stranger to a’ pleasure, peace and rest, Love into madness had fir’d my tortur’d breast; And that I should be of a’ men the maist unblest, 15 Unless she would pity my sad miserie! My true-love arose and whispered to me, (The moon looked in, and envy’d my love’s charms;) ‘An innocent Maiden, ah, would you undo me!’ I made no reply, but leapt into her arms: 20 Bright Phebus peep’d over the hills and found me there; As he has done, now, seven lang years and mair: A faithfuller, constanter, kinder, more loving Pair, His sweet-chearing beam nor enlightens nor warms. SMM no. 227 (1790), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 54 cankert ill-natured blaws blows staw stole awauk awake Probably Burns’s revision of a song by Colley Cibber,’ ’Twas past twelve o’clock on a fine summer morning’. What may be a draft version by Burns of the first stanza exists among the Law MSS:

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’Twas past one o’clock in a cold frosty morning, As I lay a musing most pleasantlie, I heard the town clock give its usual warning, Which I had intended should waken me. Then I arose, resolving I would go Visit a friend who oftimes had call’d me, O, To see whether she would prove kind to me or no; This was the reason that waken’d me. Mauchline, Aug: 1788. (Burns Chronicle (1926)) The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 16, and in McGibbon’s Collection of Scots Tunes (1768) IV no. 119.

Songs and notes

423

135 Jamie, come try me Tune: Jamie, come try me

CHORUS Jamie, come try me, Jamie, come try me; If thou would win my love, Jamie, come try me. If thou should ask my love, 5 Could I deny thee? If thou would win my love, Jamie, come try me.

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Jamie, come, etc. If thou should kiss me, love, Wha could espy thee? 10 If thou wad be my love, Jamie, come try me. Jamie, come, etc. SMM no. 229 (1790) When Burns wrote this song for the Museum, he probably had no more to go on than the first line. His aim was to keep in currency a beautiful slow air printed in Oswald’s Second Collection of Curious Scots Tunes (1742) II no. 26, and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1745) II no. 34. Dick comments, ‘The tune is interesting, but its compass is too great for ordinary voices’ (Dick 390).

Songs and notes

425

136 O, mount and go Tune: The Captain’s lady

CHORUS O, mount and go, Mount and make ye ready; O, mount and go, And be the Captain’s Lady!

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When the drums do beat, 5 And the cannons rattle, Thou shalt sit in state, And see thy love in battle. When the drums do beat, And the cannons rattle, 10 Thou shalt sit in state, And see thy love in battle. O mount and go, etc. When the vanquish’d foe Sues for peace and quiet, To the shades we’ll go 15 And in love enjoy it. O mount and go, etc. SMM no. 233 (1790) Listed as ‘Mr Burns’s old words’ in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) no. 11. Probably Burns’s revision of an older song—Stenhouse notes one with the phrase ‘and be a captain’s lady’ (Stenhouse (1853) 219). The air is the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) VII no. 26, as Mount my baggage.

Songs and notes

427

137 Sir John Cope trode the north right far Tune: Johnie Cope

Sir John Cope trode the north right far, Yet ne’er a rebel he cam naur, Until he landed at Dunbar Right early in a morning. CHORUS

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Hey! Johnie Cope, are ye wauking yet? 5 Or are ye sleeping I would wit; O, haste ye get up, for the drums do beat; O, fye! Cope, rise in the morning. He wrote a challenge from Dunbar, Come fight me Charlie an ye daur; 10 If it be not by the chance of war I’ll give you a merry morning. Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. When Charlie look’d the letter upon He drew his sword the scabbard from— ‘So Heaven restore to me my own, 15 ‘I’ll meet you, Cope, in the morning.’ Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. Cope swore with many a bloody word That he would fight them gun and sword, But he fled frae his nest like an ill scar’d bird, And Johnie he took wing in the morning. 20 Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. It was upon an afternoon, Sir Johnie march’d to Preston town He says, my lads come lean you down, And we’ll fight the boys in the morning. Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. But when he saw the Highland lads 25 Wi’ tartan trews and white cockauds, Wi’ swords and guns and rungs and gauds, O Johnie he took wing in the morning. Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. On the morrow when he did rise, He look’d between him and the skies; 30 He saw them wi’ their naked thighs, Which fear’d him in the morning.

Songs and notes

429

Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. O then he flew into Dunbar, Crying for a man of war; He thought to have pass’d for a rustic tar, 35 And gotten awa in the morning. Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. Sir Johnie into Berwick rade, Just as the devil had been his guide; Gien him the warld he would na stay’d To foughten the boys in the morning. 40 Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. ***

Says the Berwickers unto Sir John, O what’s become of all your men, In faith, says he, I dinna ken, I left them a’ this morning. Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. Says Lord Mark Car ye are na blate, 45 To bring us the news o’ your ain defeat; I think you deserve the back o’ the gate, Get out o’ my sight this morning. Hey! Johnie Cope, etc. SMM no. 234 (1790) naur near wauking waking an ye daur if ye dare trews close-fitting trousers cockauds cockades rungs cudgels gauds goads fear’d frightened rade rode warld world would na would not have

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foughten fight dinna ken don’t know blate bashful, shy Burns marked this song ‘Mr. Burns’s old words’ in his list of titles for volume III of the Museum. It is reasonable to suppose that in sending Johnson a version of a Jacobite ballad satirizing the ignominious defeat in 1746 at Preston Pans near Dunbar of the Hanoverian general Sir John Cope, he added to the traditional words. Lines 9–16 may be traditional; they occur in a version of the song included by Joseph Ritson in his Scotish Songs (1794). The sarcastic portrayal of Cope, and matching derisive tune, have given this song its popularity, but Burns himself came to dislike the tune, writing to George Thomson in 1795 about ‘a squalidity, an absence of elegance, in the sentiment & expression of that air’ (Letter 661, Letters II 347).

Songs and notes

431

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432

138 O dear minny, what shall I do? Tune: O dear minny

CHORUS O dear minny, what shall I do? O dear minny, what shall I do? O dear minny, what shall I do? ‘Daft thing, doylt thing, do as I do.’ If I be black, I canna be lo’ed; 5 If I be fair, I canna be gude; If I be lordly, the lads will look by me:

Songs and notes

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O dear minny, what shall I do? O dear minny, etc. SMM no. 236 (1790) minny mother doylt stupid Listed in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) no. 74, as ‘Mr. B—gave the old words’, this is a revision of ‘O dear mother, what shall I do’, a song in Herd’s MSS (Hecht 147), with line 7 supplied instead of line 6 being repeated. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751) III no. 10, and other collections. The version given here is a compound of SMM no. 236 and an ‘ancient’ version printed in Stenhouse’s notes to SMM (p. 223).

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139 Carl, an the king come Tune: Carl, an the king come

CHORUS Carl, an the king come, Carl, an the king come, Thou shalt dance, and I will sing, Carl, an the king come! An somebody were come again, 5

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Then somebody maun cross the main, And every man shall hae his ain, Carl, an the king come. Carl, an, etc. I trow we swapped for the warse, We gae the boot and better horse; 10 And that we’ll tell them at the cross, Carl, an the king come. Carl, an, etc. Coggie, an the king come, Coggie, an the king come, I’se be fou and thou’se be toom, 15 Coggie, an the king come. Coggie, an, etc. SMM no. 239 (1790) carl fellow, old man an if maun must hae have ain own trow believe warse worse gae gave coggie little cup I’se I shall fou drunk toom empty This song, which resembles one in Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd II, iii, was lightly revised by Burns before appearing in the Museum. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI no. 15. The version given here follows Dick in transposing the second strain down an octave.

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140 There’s a youth in this city, it were a great pity Tune: Niel Gow’s lament

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There’s a youth in this city, it were a great pity That he from our lasses should wander awa; For he’s bonie and braw, weel-favor’d with-a’. An’ his hair has a natural buckle and a’. His coat is the hue of his bonnet sae blue, 5 His fecket is white as the new-driven snaw; His hose they are blae, and his shoon like the slae, And his clear siller buckles, they dazzle us a’. For beauty and fortune the laddie’s been courtin; Weel-featur’d, weel-tocher’d, weel-mounted and braw; 10 But chiefly the siller, that gars him gang till her; The Pennie’s the jewel that beautifies a’. There’s Meg wi’ the mailin that fain wad a haen him; And Susie whase daddy was laird o’ the Ha’: There’s lang-tocher’d Nancy maist fetters his fancy—15 But th’ laddie’s dear sel he lo’es dearest of a’. SMM no. 258 (1790), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 51v fecket sleeved waistcoat, vest snaw snow blae blue shoon shoes slae sloe siller silver tocher’d furnished with a dowry gars makes till to mailin small-holding, land held on lease fain glad wad a haen would have had laird squire lang long sel self An original song in which Burns cleverly develops a hint about a good-looking but mercenary minded Scots wooer. ‘The air’, he writes, ‘is claimed by Niel Gow who calls it his lament for his brother. The first half-stanza of the song is old; the rest is mine’ (Notes 48). Neil Gow’s Lament is in his second collection of Reels (1788).

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141 My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here Tune: The musket salute

CHORUS

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My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart’s in the Highlands a chasing the deer; A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe— My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go. Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North, 5 The birth-place of valour, the country of worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love. Farewell to the mountains high cover’d with snow; Farewell to the straths and green vallies below: 10 Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods; Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods. My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart’s in the Highlands a chasing the deer; Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe—15 My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go. SMM no. 259 (1790), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 55v straths river valleys Burns writes, ‘The first half stanza of this song is old; the rest is mine’ (Notes 48). The chorus occurs as one stanza in a broadside ballad of seven stanzas and a chorus entitled The strong walls of Derry, which deals with Irish and Scottish affairs of the eighteenth century. The air Failte na miosg, The musket salute, is in Oswald’s Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740) 39, and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I no. 22.

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142 John Anderson my jo, John Tune: John Anderson my jo, John

John Anderson my jo, John, When we were first acquent; Your locks were like the raven, Your bonie brow was brent; But now your brow is beld, John, 5 Your locks are like the snaw;

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But blessings on your frosty pow, John Anderson my jo! John Anderson my jo, John, We clamb the hill the gither; 10 And mony a canty day John, We’ve had wi’ ane anither: Now we maun totter down, John, And hand in hand we’ll go; And sleep the gither at the foot, 15 John Anderson my jo. SMM no. 260 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ jo sweetheart acquent acquainted brent unwrinkled beld bald snaw snow pow head clamb climbed canty cheerful ane anither one another ‘This song is mine’ (Notes 48). Burns has created it by transforming a traditional bawdy song into one which expresses a wife’s love for her husband after many years of marriage. A version of the original song, included in MMC, begins:

John Anderson, my jo, John, I wonder what ye mean, To lie sae lang i’ the mornin, And sit sae late at een? Ye’ll bleer a’ your een, John, And why do ye so? Come sooner to your bed at een, John Anderson, my jo. In place of the sexual comedy of an ill-matched couple, Burns gives us faithfulness, affection and touching reminiscence of youth. He adjusts his words with great sensitivity to the curve of the tune. As James Kinsley notes, ‘The emphatic lift at the beginning of line 5 expresses, almost as a sigh, the contrast in the poem between then and now; the

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controlled descent to the repeated final phrase expresses the assurance and calm of the song’s ending’ (Commentary 1335). The air goes back to the early seventeenth century.

Songs and notes

443

143 Awa, Whigs, awa! Tune: Awa, Whigs, awa!

CHORUS Awa, Whigs, awa! Awa, Whigs, awa! Ye’re but a pack o’ traitor louns, Ye’ll do nae gude at a’.

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Our thrissles flourish’d fresh and fair, 5 And bonie bloom’d our roses; But Whigs cam like a frost in June, An’ wither’d a’ our posies. Awa, Whigs, etc. Our ancient crown’s fa’n in the dust; Deil blin’ them wi’ the stoure o’t, 10 And write their names in his black beuk Wha gae the whigs the power o’t! Awa, Whigs, etc. Our sad decay in church and state Surpasses my descriving: The Whigs cam o’er us for a curse, 15 And we hae done wi’ thriving. Awa, Whigs, etc. Grim Vengeance lang has taen a nap, But we may see him wauken: Gude help the day when royal heads Are hunted like a maukin. 20 Awa, Whigs, etc. SMM no. 263 (1790) louns rogues thrissles thistles fa’n fallen deil devil blin’ blind stoure dust beuk book descriving describing wauken waken maukin hare Listed in the Law MS (titles for SMM III), as ‘Mr Burns’s old words’. The chorus is traditional; Burns has revised an earlier song. The air occurs in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI no. 19 and elsewhere.

Songs and notes

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144 As late by a sodger I chancèd to pass Tune: I’ll mak you be fain to follow me

As late by a sodger I chancèd to pass, I heard him a courtin a bony young lass; ‘My hinny, my life, my dearest’, quo he, ‘I’ll mak you be fain to follow me.’ ‘Gin I should follow you, a poor sodger lad, 5 Ilk ane o’ my cummers wad think I was mad: For battles I never shall lang to see, I’ll never be fain to follow thee.’

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‘To follow me, I think ye may be glad, A part o’ my supper, a part o’ my bed, 10 A part o’ my bed, wherever it be, I’ll mak you be fain to follow me. Come try my knapsack on your back, Alang the king’s high-gate we’ll pack; Between Saint Johnston and bony Dundee, 15 I’ll mak you be fain to follow me.’ SMM no. 268 (1790) sodger soldier hinny honey fain content gin if cummers gossips lang long Saint Johnston Perth Listed in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) no. 5, as ‘Mr Burns’s old words’. Lines 1–12 occur, with minor variants, in Herd’s MSS (Hecht 148). The air is in Bremner’s Reels (1757) 24.

Songs and notes

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145 O, merry hae I been teethin a heckle Tune: Lord Breadalbine’s March

O, merry hae I been teethin a heckle, An’ merry hae I been shapin a spoon;

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O, merry hae I been cloutin a kettle, An’ kissin my Katie when a’ was done. O, a’ the lang day I ca’ at my hammer, 5 An’ a’ the lang day I whistle and sing; O’, a’ the lang night I cuddle my kimmer, An’ a’ the lang night as happy’s a king! Bitter in dool I lickit my winnins O’ marrying Bess, to gie her a slave: 10 Blest be the hour she cool’d in her linnens, And blythe be the bird that sings on her grave! Come to my arms, my Katie, my Katie, An’ come to my arms and kiss me again! Druken or sober, here’s to thee, Katie! 15 And blest be the day I did it again. SMM no. 270 (1790) heckle flax-comb cloutin patching ca’ knock kimmer lass dool misery linnens winding sheets druken drunk An example of a tinker’s song, bold in style, and making direct reference to his way of earning his living. Cf. another by Burns in Love and Liberty—A Cantata,

My bonie lass I work in brass, A TINKLER is my station; I’ve travell’d round all Christian ground In this my occupation; I’ve ta’en the gold an’ been enroll’d In many a noble squadron; But vain they search’d when off I march’d To go an’ clout the CAUDRON. The air, Lord Breadalbane’s March, is in Dow, Ancient Scottish Music…never before Printed (c. 1776) 32.

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146 My love was born in Aberdeen Tune: The White Cockade

My love was born in Aberdeen, The boniest lad that e’er was seen; But now he makes our hearts fu’ sad,— He takes the field wi’ his White Cockade. CHORUS

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O he’s a ranting, roving lad! 5 He is a brisk an’ a bonny lad! Betide what may, I will be wed, And follow the boy wi’ the White Cockade. I’ll sell my rock, my reel, my tow, My gude gray mare and hawkit cow; 10 To buy mysel a tartan plaid, To follow the boy wi’ the White Cockade. O he’s a ranting, roving lad, etc. SMM no. 272 (1790) fu’ full, very ranting riotous rock distaff tow flax fibre prepared for spinning hawkit spotted or streaked with white plaid long piece of woollen cloth used as a cloak Burns has lightly revised the following song from David Herd’s collection, making it specifically Jacobite by bringing in the White Cockade, symbol of the House of Stewart, and altering the rhythm to suit the air:

My love was born in Aberdeen, The bonniest lad that e’er was seen, O he is forced from me to gae O’er the hills and far away! O he’s a ranting roving ladie! O he’s a brisk and bonie ladie! Betide what will, I’ll get me ready And follow the lad wi’ the Highland plaidy. I’ll sell my rock, my reel, my tow, My gude gray mare and hacket cow, To buy my love a tartan plaid, Because he is a roving blade. O he’s a ranting, &c. (Hecht 124)

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The air is in Campbell’s Reels (1778) and in Aird’s Selection (1782) where it is entitled The ranting highlandman.

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147 An’ O my Eppie Tune: Eppie Adair

CHORUS An’ O my Eppie, My Jewel, my Eppie: Wha wadna be happy Wi’ Eppie Adair! By love and by beauty, 5

452

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By law and by duty, I swear to be true to My Eppie Adair! A’ Pleasure exile me; Dishonour defile me, 10 If e’er I beguile thee, My Eppie Adair! SMM no. 281 (1790); Hastie MS, ff. 54v–55r Probably based on a traditional chorus. Burns asked Johnson to set the chorus to the first part of the air, ‘and the verse likewise must be repeated over again, to take up the 2d part’ (Hastie MS). The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) XI no. 19, as My Appie.

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148 O, cam ye here the fight to shun Tune: Cameronian rant

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O, cam ye here the fight to shun, Or herd the sheep wi’ me, man? Or were ye at the Sherra-moor, Or did the battle see, man? ‘I saw the battle sair and teugh, 5 And reekin-red ran monie a sheugh; My heart for fear gae sough for sough, To hear the thuds, and see the cluds O’ clans frae woods in tartan duds, Wha glaum’d at kingdoms three, man. 10 La, la, la, etc. The red-coat lads wi’ black cockauds To meet them were na slaw, man, They rush’d, and push’d, and blude outgush’d, And mony a bouk did fa’, man: The great Argyle led on his files, 15 I wat they glanc’d for twenty miles, They hough’d the Clans like nine-pin kyles, They hack’d and hash’d while braid swords clash’d, And thro’ they dash’d, and hew’d and smash’d, Till fey men di’d awa, man. 20 La, la, la, etc. But had ye seen the philibegs And skyrin tartan trews, man, When in the teeth they dar’d our Whigs, And covenant Trueblues, man; In lines extended lang and large, 25 When baiginets o’erpower’d the targe, And thousands hasten’d to the charge; Wi’ Highland wrath they frae the sheath Drew blades o’ death, till out o’ breath They fled like frighted dows, man.’ 30 La, la, la, etc. ‘O how deil Tam can that be true, The chace gaed frae the north, man;

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I saw mysel, they did pursue The horse-men back to Forth, man; And at Dunblane in my ain sight 35 They took the brig wi’ a’ their might, And straught to Stirling wing’d their flight, But, cursed lot! the gates were shut And mony a huntit, poor Red-coat For fear amaist did swarf, man. 40 La, la, la, etc. ***

My sister Kate cam up the gate Wi’ crowdie unto me, man; She swoor she saw some rebels run To Perth and to Dundee, man: Their left-hand General had nae skill; 45 The Angus lads had nae gude will, That day their neebour’s blude to spill; For fear by foes that they should lose Their cogs o’ brose, they scar’d at blows And hameward fast did flee, man. 50 La, la, la, etc. They’ve lost some gallant gentlemen Amang the Highland clans, man; I fear my Lord Panmuir is slain, Or in his en’mies hands, man: Now wad ye sing this double flight, 55 Some fell for wrang and some for right, And mony bade the warld gudenight; Say pell and mell, wi’ muskets knell How Tories fell, and Whigs to h—ll Flew off in frighted bands, man. 60 La, la, la, etc. SMM no. 282 (1790) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ Sherra-moor Sheriffmuir sair sore

Songs and notes

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teugh tough sheugh ditch gae went sough deep breath cluds clouds duds clothes, tatters glaum’d snatched cockauds cockades slaw slow bouk body wat am sure hough’d disabled kyles skittles hash mangle, waste fey doomed di’d awa died away philibegs kilts skyrin bright-coloured trews close-fitting trousers baiginets bayonets targe light shield frae from dows pigeons deil the devil gaed went brig bridge straught straight huntit hunted swarf swoon gate way crowdie oatmeal mixed with water, porridge swoor swore neebour neighbour cogs cups brose oatmeal mixed with boiling water or milk Like no. 218 ‘Up and warn a’, Willie’, this is a rehandling by Burns of traditional material concerning the Battle of Sheriffmuir, which took place in 1715 between Jacobite forces led by the Earl of Mar and a Hanoverian army under the Duke of Argyll. His song is based on Barclay’s Dialogue betwen Will Lick-Ladle and Tom Clean-Cogue, twa shepherds wha were feeding their Flocks on the Ochil Hills on the day the Battle of Sheriff-Muir was fought…to the tune of the ‘Camerons’ March’. Burns follows Barclay, with variations, and substitutes his own account of the battle (lines 5–30), in the manner of traditional battle poetry. The Strathspey Cameronian rant, is in Bremner’s Reels (1761) 82 and in other collections.

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Songs and notes

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149 Twa bonie lads were Sandy and Jockie Tune: Jenny’s lamentation

Twa bonie lads were Sandy and Jockie, Jockie was lo’ed but Sandy unlucky,

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Jockie was laird baith of hills and of vallies, But Sandy was nought but the king o’ gude fellows. Jockie lo’ed Madgie, for Madgie had money, 5 And Sandy lo’ed Mary for Mary was bonie, Ane wedded for love, ane wedded for treasure, So Jockie had siller, and Sandy had pleasure. SMM no. 283 (1790) laird landed proprietor siller silver Listed in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) no.8: ‘Mr Burns sent words to this…’. The first two lines are by D’Urfey (Dick 490). The air Jenny’s lamentation is in Bickham’s Musical Entertainer (1737) 159.

Songs and notes

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150 Young Jockie was the blythest lad Tune: Jockie was the blythest lad

Young Jockie was the blythest lad, In a’ our town or here awa; Fu’ blythe he whistled at the gaud, Fu’ lightly danc’d he in the ha’. He roos’d my een sae bonie blue, 5 He roos’d my waist sae genty sma’, An, ay my heart cam to my mou,

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When ne’er a body heard or saw. My Jockie toils upon the plain Thro’ wind and weet, thro’ frost and snaw; 10 And o’er the lee I leuk fu’ fain When Jockie’s owsen hameward ca’. An ay the night comes round again When in his arms he taks me a’; An ay he vows he’ll be my ain 15 As lang’s he has a breath to draw. SMM no. 287 (1790), signed Z hereawa hereabouts gaud goad for driving cattle in the plough ha’ hall roos’d praised genty slender ay always mou mouth body person weet wet snaw snow lee pasture leuk look fu’ fain very content owsen oxen, cattle ca’ drive Stenhouse states that Burns wrote all but three or four lines of ‘Young Jockie was the blythest lad’ (Stenhouse (1853) 280). He owed something to a song in The Tea-Table Miscellany which begins

Willie was a wanton wag, The blythest lad that e’er I saw; At bridals still he bore the brag, And carried ay the gree awa. The air occurs in McGibbon’s Collection of Scots Tunes (1746) no. 36.

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151 Whare are you gaun, my bonie lass? Tune: A waukrife minnie

Burns noted, ‘I pickt up this old song and tune from a country girl in Nithsdale. I never met with it elsewhere in Scotland’ (Notes 51). The verbal artistry and finish of the song suggest that in this instance, as so often, Burns was reviser as well as collector. In type, the song is a pastourelle (cf. ‘Ca’ the ewes’ and ‘I’m o’er young to Marry yet’). The ‘waukrife cock’ is found in the traditional ballad of the Grey Cock:

The cock prov’d false, and untrue he was, For he crew an hour too soon; The lassie thought it day when she sent her love away, And it was but a blink of the moon. ‘Whare are you gaun, my bonie lass, Whare are you gaun, my hiney?’ She answer’d me right saucilie,— ‘An errand for my minnie.’ ‘O whare live ye, my bonie lass, 5 O whare live ye, my hiney?’ ‘By yon burn-side, gin ye maun ken,

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In a wee house wi’ my minnie.’ But I foor up the glen at e’en, To see my bonie lassie; 10 And lang before the grey morn cam, She was na hauf sae saucey. O weary fa’ the waukrife cock, And the foumart lay his crawin! He wauken’d the auld wife frae her sleep, 15 A wee blink or the dawin. An angry wife I wat she raise, And o’er the bed she brought her; And wi’ a meikle hazel rung She made her a weel pay’d dochter. 20 ‘O fare thee weel, my bonie lass! O fare thee weel, my hinnie! Thou art a gay and a bonie lass, But thou hast a waukrife minnie.’ SMM no. 288 (1790)

Songs and notes

hiney honey, sweetheart minnie mother burn stream gin ye maun ken if you must know foor went e’en evening hauf half waukrife wakeful foumart pole-cat crawin crowing wauken’d awoke auld wife old woman blink moment or before dawin dawn raise rose meikle large rung stick weel pay’d dochter well rewarded daughter

465

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152 Tho’ women’s minds, like winter winds Tune: For a’ that

Tho’ women’s minds, like winter winds May shift and turn and a’ that, The noblest breast adores them maist, A consequence I draw that. CHORUS For a’ that, and a’ that, 5 And twice as mickle as a’ that, The bony lass that I lo’e best She’ll be my ain for a’ that. Great Love I bear to all the Fair,

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Their humble slave an’ a’ that; 10 But lordly Will, I hold it still, A mortal sin to thraw that. For a’ that, etc. In rapture sweet this hour we meet, Wi’ mutual love an’ a’ that, But for how lang the flie may stang, 15 Let inclination law that. For a’ that, etc. Their tricks and craft hae put me daft, They’ve taen me in, an’ a’ that, But clear your decks and here’s, The sex! I like the jads for a’ that! 20 For a’ that, an’ a’ that, An’ twice as meikle’s a’ that, The bony lass that I lo’e best, She’ll be my ain for a’ that. SMM no. 290 (1790), signed X; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ till’t to it thraw frustrate flie fly stang sting law rule taen taken jads wenches ‘This song is mine, all except the chorus’ (Cromek, Reliques (1808)). The tune For a’ that was one of Burns’s favourites. ‘Tho women’s minds, like winter winds’ is an edited version for the SMM of the Bard’s song which Burns had included in ‘Love and Liberty— A Cantata’: see 37.

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153 Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad? Tune: An ye had been where I hae been

‘Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad? Whare hae ye been sae brankie, O? Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad? Cam ye by Killiecrankie, O?’ CHORUS An ye had been whare I hae been, 5

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Ye wad-na been sae cantie, O; An ye had seen what I hae seen, I’ th’ braes o’ Killiecrankie, O. ‘I faught at land, I faught at sea, At hame I faught my Auntie, O; 10 But I met the Devil and Dundee On th’ braes o’ Killiecrankie, O.’ ‘The bauld Pitcur fell in a furr, An’ Clavers gat a clankie, O; Or I had fed an Athole Gled 15 On th’ braes o’ Killiecrankie, O.’ SMM no. 292 (1790), signed ‘Z’ brankie finely dressed an if wad na been would not have been cantie cheerful bauld bold furr furrow, ditch clankie blow Gled kite This song is in part traditional, but a draft in Burns’s hand of lines 1–8 points to his having reworked older material. Known to be traditional are lines 5–6 and line 13. The battle of Killiecrankie, the site of which Burns visited in August 1787, was fought on 27 July 1689 between Highland troops under Viscount Dundee, Graham of Claverhouse, and General Hugh Mackay’s stronger Dutch-English force. By attacking from higher ground, the Highlanders won. The speaker is one of Mackay’s soldiers, saved only by the deaths, in pursuit, of Claverhouse and Pitcur (last stanza). The line ‘At hame I fought my Auntie O’ is probably a satirical Jacobite dig at the inadequacy of Mackay’s men; and the tone of the whole song shows that it is written from a proClaverhouse viewpoint. ‘An Athole Gled’ (kite) refers to the fierce spirit of the Highlanders of Blair. The battle of Killiecrankie took place because Blair Castle had been seized by anti-government troops. The air is a pipe tune, at least as old as the battle the song commemorates. It is in the Leyden MS (c. 1692), and had been printed in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) IX no. 18 and elsewhere.

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154 The Campbells are comin, Oho! Oho! Tune: The Campbells are comin

CHORUS The Campbells are comin, Oho! Oho! The Campbells are comin, Oho! Oho! The Campbells are comin to bonie Lochleven,

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The Campbells are comin, Oho! Oho! Upon the Lomonds I lay, I lay, 5 Upon the Lomonds I lay, I lay, I lookèd down to bonie Lochleven And saw three bonie perches play.— The Campbells, etc. Great Argyle he goes before, He maks his canons and guns to roar, 10 Wi’ sound o’ trumpet, pipe and drum The Campbells are comin Oho! Oho! The Campbells, etc. The Campbells they are a’ in arms Their loyal faith and truth to show, Wi’ banners rattling in the wind 15 The Campbells are comin Oho! Oho! The Campbells, etc. SMM no. 299 (1790); Hastie MS, f. 57 A note in the index of volume III of the SMM states that this song is ‘Said to be composed on the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots in Lochleven Castle’. However, the popular tune, with the title of Burns’s first line, is Jacobite, and has traditionally been associated with the 1715 rebellion rather than with Mary Queen of Scots. It is in Bremner’s Reels (1761).

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155 Now nature hangs her mantle green Tune: Mary Queen of Scots lament

Now nature hangs her mantle green On every blooming tree, And spreads her sheets o’ daisies white Out o’er the grassy lea. Now Phoebus chears the crystal streams, 5 And glads the azure skies; But nought can glad the weary wight That fast in durance lies. Now laverocks wake the merry morn, Aloft on dewy wing; 10 The merle, in his noontide bow’r, Makes woodland echoes ring. The mavis mild wi’ many a note,

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Sings drowsy day to rest: In love and freedom they rejoice, 15 Wi’ care nor thrall opprest. Now blooms the lily by the bank, The primrose down the brae; The hawthorn’s budding in the glen, And milk-white is the slae: 20 The meanest hind in fair Scotland May rove their sweets amang; But I, the Queen of a’ Scotland, Maun lie in prison strang. I was the Queen o’ bonie France 25 Where happy I hae been; Fu’ lightly rase I in the morn, As blythe lay down at e’en: And I’m the sov’reign of Scotland, And mony a traitor there; 30 Yet here I lie in foreign bands, And never ending care. But as for thee, thou false woman, My sister and my fae, Grim vengeance, yet, shall whet a sword 35 That thro’ thy soul shall gae: The weeping blood in woman’s breast Was never known to thee; Nor th’ balm that draps on wounds of woe Frae woman’s pitying e’e. 40 My son! my son! may kinder stars Upon thy fortune shine: And may those pleasures gild thy reign, That ne’er wad blink on mine!

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God keep thee frae thy mother’s faes, 45 Or turn their hearts to thee: And where thou meet’st thy mother’s friend, Remember him for me! O! soon, to me, may summer-suns Nae mair light up the morn! 50 Nae mair, to me, the autumn winds, Wave o’er the yellow corn! And in the narrow house o’ death Let winter round me rave; And the next flow’rs, that deck the spring, 55 Bloom on my peaceful grave. SMM no. 404 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ lea pasture wight person laverocks larks merle blackbird mavis thrush slae sloe strang strong rase rose e’en evening draps drops blink gleam *** This song went through several drafts. It was completed by 6 June 1790, and sent to Mrs Dunlop, who shared Burns’s pity for ‘the amiable but unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots’ (Letter 399, Letters II 28). Burns sent a copy of the Lament to Clarinda on 11 December 1791 with the note, Such, My dearest Nancy, were the words of the amiable but unfortunate Mary.—Misfortune seems to take a peculiar pleasure in darting her arrows against ‘Honest Men and bony Lasses’—Of this You are too, too just a proof; but may your future fate be a bright exception to the remark. (Letter 484, Letters II 123)

Songs and notes

475

Burns was a Jacobite by instinct and family tradition; and Mary Queen of Scots appealed to his imagination. In a letter published in the Edinburgh Evening Courant on 22 November 1788, he described the Stewarts as ‘a family, illustrious as any in Europe, and unfortunate beyond historic precedent’. He had read and admired William Tytler of Woodhouselee’s defence of Mary, An Historical and Critical Enquiry into the Evidence…against Mary Queen of Scots (1760). Burns may have suggested the air printed in the Museum.

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Songs and notes

477

156 Sensibility how charming Tune: Cornwallis’s lament

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478

Sensibility how charming, Dearest Nancy, thou canst tell; But distress with horrors arming, Thou alas! hast known too well! Fairest flower, behold the lily 5 Blooming in the sunny ray: Let the blast sweep o’er the valley, See it prostrate in the clay. Hear the woodlark charm the forest, Telling o’er his little joys: 10 Hapless bird! a prey the surest To each pirate of the skies. Dearly bought the hidden treasure, Finer Feelings can bestow: Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure, 15 Thrill the deepest notes of woe. SMM no. 329 (1792) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 68r Burns wrote this song in July 1790, sending a copy to his friend Mrs Dunlop, and explaining that he had added lines 5–8 ‘almost extempore’ in response to a bereavement suffered by Mrs Dunlop’s son and daughter-in-law (Letter 411). A year later he sent a copy of the song to Clarinda (Nancy McLehose), describing the poem as ‘just…composed’ (Letter 462): she sent him a verse reply. In 1791 he informed her that he had altered the song for SMM, ‘to set to a most beautiful air, out of compliment to the first of women, my ever-beloved, ever sacred “Clarinda”’ (Letter 485, Letters II 123–4). The air Cornwallis’s lament for Colonel Moorhouse is by Malcolm Stewart.

Songs and notes

479

157 Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine Tune: Banks of Banna

Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine, A place where body saw na; Yestreen lay on this breast o’ mine The gowden locks of Anna.

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The hungry Jew in wilderness 5 Rejoicing o’er his manna Was naething to my hiney bliss Upon the lips of Anna. Ye Monarchs take the East and West, Frae Indus to Savannah! 10 Gie me within my straining grasp The melting form of Anna. There I’ll despise Imperial charms, An Empress or Sultana, While dying raptures in her arms 15 I give and take with Anna!!! Awa, thou flaunting god o’ day! Awa, thou pale Diana! Ilk star, gae hide thy twinkling ray! When I’m to meet my Anna. 20 Come, in thy raven plumage, Night; Sun, moon and stars withdrawn a’; And bring an angel pen to write My transports wi’ my Anna. Glenriddell MS yestreen yesterday evening body person gowden golden hiney honey Burns commented on this song to George Thomson, ‘I think [it] is the best love-song I ever composed in my life; but in its original state, is not quite a lady’s song’ (Letter 557, Letters II 206). The song was probably written in 1790. Anna was Anne Park, niece of the landlady of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries, one of Burns’s favourite pubs in his later years. She bore him a daughter Elizabeth, born on 31 March 1791. The Irish air, Banks of Banna, had been published in Corri’s Scots Songs (1783) and in the Perth Musical Miscellany (1786).

Songs and notes

481

158 Ken ye ought o’ Captain Grose? Tune: Sir John Malcolm

This teasing song was written in a wrapper enclosing a letter to Captain Francis Grose, to be left with an antiquarian friend of Grose. Francis Grose (1731–91), son of a Swiss immigrant, served for a time in the army, and then as Richmond Herald, but gave up this post to become an antiquarian writer. Burns met him at the house of his neighbour Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, while Grose was seeking materials for his Antiquities of Scotland (1789–91). The two men took to each other immediately, and ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ was written at Grose’s suggestion as a tale about Alloway Kirk. The air, originally that of a rowing song, is in Bremner’s Reels (1761) 96 and Aird’s Airs (1782) II no. 195.

Ken ye ought o’ Captain Grose? Igo and ago, If he’s amang his friends or foes? Iram, coram, dago. Is he south, or is he north? 5 Igo and ago, Or drownèd in the river Forth?

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482

Iram, coram, dago. Is he slain by Highland bodies? Igo and ago, 10 And eaten like a weather-haggis? Iram, coram, dago. Is he to Abram’s bosom gane? Igo and ago, Or haudin Sarah by the wame? 15 Iram, coram, dago. Where’er he be, the Lord be near him! Igo and ago, As for the deil, he daur na steer him, Iram, coram, dago. 20 But please transmit th’ inclosed letter, Igo and ago, Which will oblidge your humble debtor, Iram, coram, dago. So may ye hae auld Stanes in store, 25 Igo and ago, The very Stanes that Adam bore; Iram, coram, dago. So may ye get in glad possession, Igo and ago, 30 The coins o’ Satan’s Coronation! Iram, coram, dago. Glenriddell MS bodies persons wether-haggis haggis made in a wether’s stomach wame stomach deil devil daur dare steer rouse stanes stones, testicles

Songs and notes

483

159 By yon castle wa’ at the close of the day Tune: There are few good fellows when Jamie’s awa

By yon castle wa’ at the close of the day, I heard a man sing, tho’ his head it was grey, And as he was singing, the tears doon came, ‘There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame’. The Church is in ruins, the state is in jars, 5 Delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars, We dare na weel say’t, but we ken wha’s to blame, ‘There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame’. My seven braw sons for Jamie drew sword, And now I greet round their green beds in the yerd; 10 It brak the sweet heart of my faithfu’ auld Dame,

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‘There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame’. Now, life is a burden that bows me down, Sin I tint my bairns, and he tint his crown; But till my last moments my words are the same, 15 ‘There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame’. SMM no. 315 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 65 greet weep yerd earth brak broke sin since tint lost bairns children Burns wrote to Alexander Cunningham on 11 March 1791, You must know a beautiful Jacobite Air, There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.—When Political combustion ceases to be the object of Princes and Patriots, it then, you know, becomes the lawful prey of Historians and Poets… If you like the air, and if the stanzas hit your fancy, you cannot imagine, my dear Friend, how much you would oblige me if by the charms of your delightful voice you would give my honest effusion to ‘The memory of joys that are past/ to the few friends whom you indulge in that pleasure. (Letter 441, Letters II 82) His song, as David Daiches observes, is ‘written in an interesting mixture of English rhetorical and Scottish ballad style’ (Donald A.Low, ed., Critical Essays on Robert Burns (1975) 152). Its mood is sombre; the Jacobite cause commands total loyalty, at a price in lives. Burns commented that the tune ‘is sometimes called There’s few gude fellows when Willie’s awa’; but I never have been able to meet with anything else of the song than the title’ (Notes 55). It is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I no. 20 and other collections. To George Thomson, in 1793, he wrote ‘the second, or high part of the tune…is only for instrumental music, and would be much better omitted in singing’ (Letter 586, Letters II 241).

Songs and notes

485

160 Out over the Forth, I look to the north Tune: Charles Graham’s welcome hame

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Out over the Forth, I look to the north— But what is the north and its Highlands to me? The south nor the east gie ease to my breast, The far foreign land, or the wide rolling sea! But I look to the west, when I gae to rest, 5 That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be; For far in the west lives he I lo’e best, The man that is dear to my babie and me. SMM no. 421 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 123 Burns was at work on this song when he wrote to Alexander Cunningham on 11 March 1791 (Letter 441). It may have been suggested by ‘A Fragment to the tune of Mary Scot’ in Herd’s Manuscripts:

O! when I look east my heart is sair But when I look west it’s mair and mair For then I see the braes of Yarrow And there I lost for ay my Marrow. The Hastie MS has a note by Burns: ‘The inclosed tune is a part of Gow’s “Charles Graham’s welcome home”, but I do not think the close of the 2d part of this tune happy.—Mr. Clarke, on looking over Gow’s air, will probably contrive a better’. The air is in Gow’s Second Collection of Strathspey Reels (1788).

Songs and notes

487

161 Ye flowery banks o’ bonie Doon Tune: Cambdelmore

The first version of a song which in revised form was sent to the Museum and included in volume IV (1792) Burns wrote to Alexander Cunningham on 11 March 1791 I have this evening sketched out a Song, which I had a good mind to send you…intended to sing to a Strathspey reel of which I am very fond… It takes three Stanzas of four lines each, to go through the whole tune. (Letter 441, Letters II 81)

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Lines 1–4 in MS read

Sweet are the banks, the banks o’ Doon, The spreading flowers are fair, And every thing is blythe and glad But I am fou o’ care. Ye flowery banks o’ bonie Doon, How can ye blume sae fair; How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae fu’ o’ care! Thou’ll break my heart, thou bonie bird 5 That sings upon the bough; Thou minds me o’ the happy days When my fause luve was true. Thou’ll break my heart, thou bonie bird That sings beside thy mate; 10 For sae I sat, and sae I sang, And wist na o’ my fate. Aft hae I rov’d by bonie Doon, To see the wood-bine twine, And ilka bird sang o’ its love, 15 And sae did I o’ mine. Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose Frae aff its thorny tree, And my fause luver staw the rose, But left the thorn wi’ me. 20 Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose, Upon a morn in June: And sae I flourish’d on the morn, And sae was pu’d or noon! Cromek, Reliques of Robert (1808)

Songs and notes

blume bloom minds reminds fause luver false lover wist knew pu’d pulled frae aff from off staw stole

489

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490

162 Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon Tune: The Caledonian Hunt’s delight

Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair? How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary fu’ o’ care! Thou’ll break my heart, thou warbling bird, 5 That wantons thro’ the flowering thorn:

Songs and notes

491

Thou minds me o’ departed joys, Departed never to return! Oft hae I rov’d by bonie Doon, To see the rose and woodbine twine; 10 And ilka bird sang o’ its luve, And fondly sae did I o’ mine. Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose, Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree; And my fause luver staw my rose, 15 But, ah! he left the thorn wi’ me. SMM no. 374 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ minds reminds pu’d pulled fause false staw stole Burns’s revision for the SMM of a song to a different air which he sent to Alexander Cunningham on 11 March 1791. The poet wrote to George Thomson in November 1794: There is another air, ‘The Caledonian hunt’s delight’, to which I wrote a song that you will find in Johnson—‘Ye banks & braes o’ bonie Doon’—; this air, I think, might find a place among your hundred—as Lear says of his Knights.—To make room for it, you may take out (to my taste) either, ‘Young Jockey was the blythest lad,’ or ‘There’s nae luck about the house,’ or, ‘The collier’s bonie lassie,’ or ‘The tither morn,’ or, The sow’s tail’—& put into your additional list.—Not but that these songs have great merit; but still they have not the pathos of ‘The banks o’ Doon’. Do you know the history of the air? It is curious enough.—A good many years ago, a Mr Jas Miller, Writer in your good town, a gentleman whom possibly you know, was in company with our friend, Clarke; & talking of Scots music, Miller expressed an ardent ambition to be able to compose a Scots air.—Mr Clarke, partly by way of joke, told him, to keep to the black keys of the harpsichord, & preserve some kind of rhythm; & he would infallibly compose a Scots air.—Certain it is, that in a few days, Mr Miller produced the rudiments of an air, which Mr Clarke, with some touches & corrections, fashioned into the tune in question.—Ritson, you know, has the same story of the ‘Black keys’; but this account which I have just given you, Mr Clarke informed me of, several years ago.—Now, to shew you how difficult it is to trace the origin of our airs, I have heard it repeatedly asserted that it was an Irish air; nay I met with an Irish gentleman who affirmed he had heard it in Ireland among the old women;

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while, on the other hand, a Lady of fashion, no less than a Countess, informed me, that the first person who introduced the air into this country was a Baronet’s Lady of her acquaintance, who took down the notes from an itinerant Piper in the Isle of Man.—How difficult then to ascertain the truth respecting our Poesy & Music! I myself, have lately seen a couple of Ballads sung through the streets of Dumfries, with my name at the head of them as the Author, though it was the first time ever I had seen them! (Letter 646, Letters II 325–6) The air The Caledonian Hunt’s delight was first printed by Gow in his Second Collection of Strathspey Reels (1788).

Songs and notes

493

163 Farewell, thou fair day, thou green earth, and ye skies Tune: Oran an aoig

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494

Farewell, thou fair day, thou green earth, and ye skies, Now gay with the broad setting sun; Farewell, loves and friendships, ye dear tender ties— Our race of existence is run! Thou grim King of Terrors! thou life’s gloomy foe, 5 Go frighten the coward and slave! Go teach them to tremble, fell tyrant! but know, No terrors hast thou to the brave! Thou strik’st the dull peasant, he sinks in the dark, Nor saves e’en the wreck of a name: 10 Thou strik’st the young hero, a glorious mark! He falls in the blaze of his fame. In the field of proud honor, our swords in our hands, Our King and our Country to save, While victory shines on life’s last ebbing sands, 15 O, who would not die with the Brave! SMM no. 385 (1792) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ Burns wrote to Mrs Dunlop in May 1791, I have just finished the following Song, which to a lady the descendant of Wallace…& herself the mother of several Soldiers, needs neither preface nor apology… The circumstance…was, looking over with a musical [friend?] M’Donald’s collection of Highland airs, I was struck with one, an Isle of Skye tune, entitled ‘Oran an aoig; or, Th[e] Song of Death,’ to the measure of which I have adapted my Stanzas’. (Letter 485A, Letters II 124–5) According to Currie, Burns had an intention in the latter part of his life, of printing [this song] separately, but was advised against it… The martial ardour which rose so high afterwards, on the threatened invasion, had not then acquired the tone necessary to give popularity to this noble poem. (Currie 2nd edn (1801) I 213) The air is in Patrick Macdonald’s Collection of Highland Vocal Airs (1784) no. 162.

Songs and notes

495

164 O how shall I, unskilfu’, try Tune: Miss Muir

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O how shall I, unskilfu’, try The poet’s occupation? The tunefu’ powers, in happy hours That whisper inspiration; Even they maun dare an effort mair 5 Than aught they ever gave us, On they rehearse in equal verse The charms o’ lovely Davies. Each eye, it cheers, when she appears, Like Phoebus in the morning, 10 When past the shower, and every flower The garden is adorning! As the wretch looks o’er Siberia’s shore, When winter-bound the wave is, Sae droops our heart when we maun part 15 Frae charming, lovely Davies. Her smile’s a gift frae boon the lift, That maks us mair than princes; A scepter’d hand, a king’s command, Is in her darting glances: 20 The man in arms ‘gainst female charms, Even he her willing slave is; He hugs his chain, and owns the reign

Songs and notes

497

Of conquering lovely Davies. ***

My Muse to dream of such a theme, 25 Her feeble powers surrender; The eagle’s gaze alane surveys The sun’s meridian splendor: I wad in vain essay the strain, The deed too daring brave is; 30 I’ll drap the lyre, and, mute, admire The charms o’ lovely Davies. SMM no. 349 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 79 aught anything boon the lift above the sky alane alone drap drop Burns’s neighbour Robert Riddell was a relative of a Dr Davies of Tenby in Wales and his beautiful daughter Deborah, who visited his home and met the poet. This song may have been the ‘foolish verses, the unfinished production of a random moment, and never meant to have met your ear’, which Burns sent to her in August 1791 (Letter 472A , Letters II 111). Deborah Davies also inspired no. 186 ‘Bonie wee thing’. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 11.

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498

Songs and notes

499

165 Ance mair I hail thee, thou gloomy December! Tune: Thro’ the lang muir

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500

Ance mair I hail thee, thou gloomy December! Ance mair I hail thee wi’ sorrow and care! Sad was the parting thou makes me remember: Parting wi’ Nancy, O, ne’er to meet mair! Fond lovers’ parting is sweet, painful pleasure, 5 Hope beaming mild on the soft parting hour; But the dire feeling, O, farewell for ever! Anguish unmingl’d and agony pure! Wild as the winter now tearing the forest, Till the last leaf o’ the summer is flown, 10 Such is the tempest has shaken my bosom, Till my last hope and last comfort is gone: Still as I hail thee, thou gloomy December, Still shall I hail thee wi’ sorrow and care; For sad was the parting thou makes me remember, 15 Parting wi’ Nancy, Oh, ne’er to meet mair. SMM no. 499 (1796), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 162 Like the more famous ‘Ae fond kiss’, this song was written for Clarinda, who was soon to sail to her husband in Jamaica. Burns had visited Edinburgh earlier in December; he sent the songs to Clarinda from Dumfries on the 27th of the month. The air, Thro’ the lang muir I follow’d him hame, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) vii 30.

Songs and notes

501

166 Ae fond kiss, and then we sever! Tune: Rory Dall’s Port

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever! Ae fareweel, and then for ever! Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee, Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee. Who shall say that fortune grieves him 5 While the star of hope she leaves him? Me, nae chearfu’ twinkle lights me; Dark despair around benights me. I’ll ne’er blame my partial fancy, Naething could resist my Nancy 10 But to see her, was to love her;

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Love but her, and love for ever. Had we never lov’d sae kindly, Had we never lov’d sae blindly, Never met—or never parted, 15 We had ne’er been broken-hearted. Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest! Fare thee weel, thou best and dearest! Thine be ilka joy and treasure, Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure! 20 Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; Ae fareweel, Alas, for ever! Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee, Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee. SMM no. 347 (1792), signed X; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ wage pledge One of Burns’s most famous songs, inspired (along with nine other songs) by his love for ‘Clarinda’, Mrs Nancy M’Lehose, a noted beauty of whom Burns saw much in Edinburgh in 1787–8, and who had left her husband because of his cruelty. The poet sent her this song shortly after their last meeting in Edinburgh in December 1791. Mrs M’Lehose was to write in her Journal forty years later, on 6 December 1831: ‘This day I can never forget. Parted with Burns, in the year 1791, never more to meet in this world. Oh, may we meet in Heaven!’ Scott comments on lines 13–16

Had we never lov’d sae kindly, Had we never lov’d sae blindly, Never met—or never parted, We had ne’er been broken-hearted that ‘they contain the essence of a thousand love tales’. The tune is printed in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 24. Rory Dall was the name given to the harpers attached to the Macleods of Skye. ‘Port’ is Gaelic for ‘air’.

Songs and notes

503

167 There was twa wives, and twa witty wives Tune: Tak your auld cloak

There was twa wives, and twa witty wives, As e’er play’d houghmagandie, And they coost oot, upon a time, Out o’er a drink o’ brandy; Up Maggy rose, and forth she goes, 5 And she leaves auld Mary flytin, And she f-rted by the byre—en’ For she was gaun a sh-ten. She f-rted by the byre—en’,

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504

She f-rted by the stable; 10 And thick and nimble were her steps As fast as she was able: Till at yon dyke-back the hurly brak, But raxin for some dockins, The beans and pease cam down her thighs, 15 And she cackit a’ her stockins. MMC houghmagandie fornication coost out fell out flytin scolding hurly onrush brak broke raxin stretching cackit dirtied Burns sent this song to his friend Cleghorn in January 1792 as ‘a new Edition of an old Cloaciniad song, [a] species of composition which I have heard you admire… It is sung to an old tune, something like Take your auld cloak about you’ (Letter 488, Letters II 126–7).

Songs and notes

505

168 O, saw ye bonie Lesley? Tune: The Collier’s bonie lassie

Burns wrote to George Thomson from Dumfries on 8 November 1792, enclosing a copy of ‘O saw ye bonie Lesley’: I have just been looking over ‘the Collier’s bony dochter,’ & if the following rhapsody which I composed the other day on a charming Ayrshire girl, Miss Lesley Bailie of Mayfield, as she passed thro’ this place to England, if it will suit your taste better than the Collier lassie, fall on & welcome. He went on to explain how exactly the words should be matched to the melody…

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506

Every seventh line ends with three syllables, in place of the two in the other lines, but you will see in the sixth bar of the second part, the place where these three syllables will always recur, that the four semiquavers usually sung as one syllable will with the greatest propriety divide into two. (Letter 514, Letters II 157) In an earlier letter to Alexander Cunningham, he described Lesley Bailie as ‘the most beautiful, elegant woman in the world’ and added I accompanied her & her Father’s Family fifteen miles on their journey, out of pure devotion to admire the loveliness of the works of God in such an unequalled display of them…in galloping home at night, I made a ballad on her. (Letter 506, Letters II 147–8) The air is in the Leyden MS (c. 1690), Margaret Sinkler’s MS (1710) and Orpheus Caledonius (1725) no. 44.

O, saw ye bonie Lesley, As she gaed o’er the Border? She’s gane like Alexander, To spread her conquests farther! To see her is to love her, 5 And love but her for ever; For Nature made her what she is And never made anither! Thou art a queen, fair Lesley, Thy subjects we, before thee: 10 Thou art divine, fair Lesley, The hearts o’ men adore thee. The deil he could na scaith thee, Or aught that wad belang thee: He’d look into thy bonie face, 15 And say, ‘I canna wrang thee!’ The Powers aboon will tent thee, Misfortune sha’na steer thee; Thou’rt like themsels sae lovely, That ill they’ll ne’er let near thee. 20

Songs and notes

507

Return again, fair Lesley, Return to Caledonie! That we may brag, we hae a lass There’s nane again sae bonie. SC no. 33 (1798) anither another deil devil scaith harm aught anything wad belang would belong to canna wrang cannot wrong aboon above tent tend sha’na shall not steer affect

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508

169 Sweet closes the evening on Craigieburnwood Tune: Craigie-burn Wood

Songs and notes

509

Sweet closes the evening on Craigieburn-wood, And blythely awaukens the morrow; But the pride of the spring in the Craigieburn-wood, Can yield me nothing but sorrow. CHORUS Beyond thee dearie, beyond thee, dearie, 5 And O! to be lying beyond thee, O sweetly, soundly weel may he sleep, That’s laid in the bed beyond thee. I see the spreading leaves and flowers, I hear the wild birds singing; 10 But pleasure they hae nane for me While care my heart is wringing. Beyond thee, etc. I can na tell, I maun na tell, I dare na for your anger: But secret love will break my heart, 15 If I conceal it langer.— Beyond thee, etc. I see thee gracefu’, straight and tall, I see thee sweet and bonie, But Oh, what will my torments be, If thou refuse thy Johnie! 20 Beyond thee, etc. To see thee in another’s arms, In love to lie and languish, ’Twad be my dead, that will be seen, My heart wad brust wi’ anguish. Beyond thee, etc. But Jeanie, say thou wilt be mine, 25 Say, thou loes nane before me; And a’ my days o’ life to come

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510

I’ll gratefully adore thee. Beyond thee, etc. SMM no. 301 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 58 awaukens awakens langer longer brust burst *** Burns wrote to George Thomson on 7 April 1793, There is…one sentimental song, of mine, the first in the 4th Vol. of the Museum, which never was known out of the immediate neighbourhood, untill I got it taken down from a country girl’s singing.—It is called, Craigieburnwood; & in the opinion of Mr Clarke, is one of the sweetest Scots Songs.—He is quite enthusiastic about it; & I would take his taste in Scots Music against the taste of most connoisseurs. (Letter 557, Letters II 206) ‘Mr Clarke’ is Stephen Clarke, organist in Edinburgh, and Burns’s fellow-worker in preparing successive volumes of the Museum. In the Interleaved Museum, Burns noted, It is remarkable of this air that it is the confine of that country where the greatest part of our Lowland music, (so far as from the title, words, &c., we can localize it) has been composed. From Craigie-burn, near Moffat, until one reaches the West Highlands, we have scarcely one slow air of any antiquity. The song was composed on a passion which a Mr Gillespie, a particular friend of mine, had for a Miss Lorimer, afterwards a Mrs Whelpdale. The young lady was born at Craigie-burn wood. The chorus is part of an old foolish ballad. (Notes 53) John Gillespie worked with Burns in the Excise. Jean Lorimer (b. 1775), a farmer’s daughter from near Dumfries, eloped to Gretna Green with Whelpdale, who subsequently fled to his native England to escape his creditors. Thereupon his wife returned home and resumed her maiden name. Burns admired Jean Lorimer himself as ‘one of the finest women in Scotland’, and informed George Thomson that she had inspired many of his songs.

Songs and notes

511

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512

170 Frae the friends and land I love Tune: Carron side

Frae the friends and land I love Driv’n by Fortune’s felly spite, Frae my best belov’d I rove, Never mair to taste delight: Never mair maun hope to find 5 Ease frae toil, relief frae care;

Songs and notes

513

When remembrance wracks the mind, Pleasures but unveil despair. Brightest climes shall mirk appear, Desart ilka blooming shore; 10 Till the Fates, nae mair severe, Friendship, Love and Peace restore. Till revenge, wi’ laurell’d head, Bring our Banished hame again; And ilk loyal, bonie lad 15 Cross the seas and win his ain. SMM no. 302 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 59 felly bitter wracks wrecks mirk dark ilka each hame home Burns’s revision of an old song. ‘I added the four last lines’, he noted, ‘by way of giving a turn to the theme of the poem, such as it is’ (Notes 53). No traditional version has been traced. The last four lines make the song explicitly Jacobite. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 10.

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514

171 Our lords are to the mountains gane Tune: Druimion Dubh

Our lords are to the mountains gane, A hunting o’ the fallow deer; And they hae gripet Hughie Graham For stealing o’ the Bishop’s mare.— And they hae tied him hand and foot, 5 And led him up thro’ Stirling town; The lads and lasses met him there, Cried, Hughie Graham thou art a loun. O lowse my right hand free, he says, And put my braid sword in the same; 10

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He’s no in Stirling town this day, Daur tell the tale to Hughie Graham.— Up then bespake the brave Whitefoord, As he sat by the bishop’s knee; Five hundred white stots I’ll gie you, 15 If ye’ll let Hughie Graham gae free.— O haud your tongue, the bishop says, And wi’ your pleading let me be, For tho’ ten Grahams were in his coat, Hughie Graham this day shall die.—20 Up then bespake the fair Whitefoord, As she sat by the bishop’s knee; Five hundred white pence I’ll gie you, If ye’ll gie Hughie Graham to me.— O haud your tongue now lady fair, 25 And wi’ your pleading let me be; Altho’ ten Grahams were in his coat, Its for my honor he maun die.— They’ve taen him to the gallows knowe, He looked to the gallows tree, 30 Yet never color left his cheek, Nor ever did he blin’ his e’e.— At length he looked round about, To see whatever he could spy; And there he saw his auld father, 35 And he was weeping bitterly.— O haud your tongue, my father dear, And wi’ your weeping let it be; Thy weeping’s sairer on my heart, Than a’ that they can do to me.—40 And ye may gie my brother John

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My sword that’s bent in the middle clear, And let him come at twelve o’clock And see me pay the bishop’s mare.— And ye may gie my brother James 45 My sword that’s bent in the middle brown; And bid him come at four o’clock, And see his brother Hugh cut down.— Remember me to Maggy my wife, The niest time ye gang o’er the moor; 50 Tell her, she staw the bishop’s mare, Tell her, she was the bishop’s whore. ***

And ye may tell my kith and kin, I never did disgrace their blood; And when they meet the bishop’s cloak, 55 To mak it shorter by the hood.— SMM no. 303 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 60 hae gripet have apprehended loun rascal lowse loose braid broad daur dare bespake spoke stots young bullocks haud hold knowe hill blin’ blind sairer sorer niest next staw stole The earliest printed Scottish text of a ballad known on both sides of the Border. Burns comments, ‘There are several editions of this ballad. This…is from oral tradition in Ayrshire, where, when I was a boy, it was a popular song.—It, originally, had a simple old tune, which I have forgotten’ (Notes 54). Scott includes in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border a version long current in Selkirkshire, which sets the tale not in Stirling but in Carlisle. It is possible that the ‘wanton bishop’ of the story was Robert Aldridge, Lord

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Bishop of Carlisle, to whom bills of complaint were issued in 1553 against four hundred Borderers for burnings, murders and other lawless acts. On the other hand, references in Burns’s version to Hughie Graham’s being ‘led up thro’ Stirling town’ (l. 6), and to ‘the gallows knowe’ (l. 29) clearly match the actual topography of Stirling. Lines 9–12, 29–32 and 39–40 have been identified as probable additions by Burns to the text he collected. Burns wrote to George Thomson in September 1793 that ‘the real tune of “Hughie Graham”, as sung in some places…’ was Drimen Duff (Letter 586, Letters II 242). This ballad air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 12.

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Songs and notes

519

172 O John, come kiss me now, now, now Tune: John, come kiss me now

CHORUS O John, come kiss me now, now, now; O John, my luve, come kiss me now! O John, come kiss me by and by,

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For weel ye ken the way to woo! O some will court and compliment, 5 And ither some will kiss and daut; But I will mak o’ my gudeman, My ain gudeman, it is nae faute. O John, etc. O some will court and compliment, And ither some will prie their mou, 10 And some will hause in ithers arms, And that’s the way I like to do. O John, etc. SMM no. 305 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 62 daut fondle mak o’ treat affectionately, fuss over gudeman husband faute fault prie taste mou mouth hause embrace A revision by Burns of a traditional song which probably dates from the later Middle Ages. Herd’s collection contains a fragment which was known to Burns:

John, come kiss me, now, now, now, O John come kiss me now, John come kiss me by and by, And make nae mair ado. Some will court and compliment, And make a great ado, Some will make of their goodman, And sae will I of you. (Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II 206) The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI no. 2.

Songs and notes

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173 When first my brave Johnie lad came to this town Tune: Cock up your beaver

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When first my brave Johnie lad came to this town, He had a blue bonnet that wanted the crown, But now he has gotten a hat and a feather— Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver! Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu’ sprush, 5 We’ll over the Border and gie them a brush; There’s somebody there we’ll teach better behaviour— Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver! SMM no. 309 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 113v fu‘sprush very sprucely, smartly Burns’s revision of a fragment in David Herd’s collection:

When first my dear JOHNY came to this town, He had a blue bonnet, it wanted the crown; But now he has gotten a hat and a feather, Hey, my JOHNY lad, cock up your beaver. Cock up your beaver, cock up your beaver, Hey, my JOHNY lad, cock up your beaver; Cock up your beaver, and cock it nae wrang, We’ll a’ to England ere it be lang. (Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II no. 205) The tune was popular in England in the seventeenth century as a Scotch dance. It was in print by 1695. Burns could have found it in Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) VII no. 2, or in McGibbon’s Collection of Scots Tunes, also 1755.

Songs and notes

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174 O, meikle thinks my luve o’ my beauty Tune: The highway to Edinburgh

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O, meikle thinks my luve o’ my beauty, And meikle thinks my luve o’ my kin; But little thinks my luve I ken brawlie My tocher’s the jewel has charms for him. It’s a’ for the apple he’ll nourish the tree; 5 It’s a’ for the hiney he’ll cherish the bee; My laddie’s sae meikle in love wi’ the siller, He canna hae luve to spare for me! Your proffer o’ luve’s an airle-penny, My tocher’s the bargain ye wad buy; 10 But an ye be crafty, I am cunnin, Sae ye wi’ anither your fortune maun try. Ye’re like to the timmer o’ yon rotten wood, Ye’re like to the bark o’ yon rotten tree, Ye’ll slip frae me like a knotless thread, 15 And ye’ll crack your credit wi’ mae nor me. SMM no. 312 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ brawlie very well tocher dowry hiney honey siller silver, money airle-penny earnest money an if timmer wood crack chat mae nor more than One of Burns’s finest and most spirited songs, partly based on traditional material, including probably lines 5–6, and the final four lines, which he had sent to Tytler of Woodhouselee in August 1787, as ‘a sample of the old pieces that are still to be found among our Peasantry in the West. I once had a great many of these fragments and some of these here entire; but as I had no idea then that any body cared for them, I have forgot them’ (Letter 126, Letters I 147). Noting that Nathaniel Gow claimed to have written the tune, Burns commented ‘It is notoriously taken from The muckin o’ Geordie’s byre. It is also to be found, long prior to Nath1 Gow’s aera, in Aird’s Selection of Airs and Marches…under the name of The highway to Edinr’ (Notes 54).

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The strong tune and Burns’s skill in matching to it the bitter words of an insulted girl together ensure that the song has unity.

175 Gane is the day and mirk’s the night Tune: Gudewife, count the lawin

Gane is the day and mirk’s the night, But we’ll ne’er stray for faut o’ light, For ale and brandy’s stars and moon, And blude-red wine’s the rysin sun. CHORUS Then guidwife count the lawin, 5 The lawin, the lawin; Then guidwife count the lawin, And bring a coggie mair.

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There’s wealth and ease for gentlemen, And semple-folk maun fecht and fen; 10 But here we’re a’ in ae accord, For ilka man that’s drunk’s a lord. Then guidwife count, etc. My coggie is a haly pool, That heals the wounds o’ care and dool; And pleasure is a wanton trout, 15 An’ ye drink it a’, ye’ll find him out. Then guidwife count, etc. SMM no. 313 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 64 mirk dark faut lack guidwife mistress lawin bill, reckoning coggie little drinking vessel semple humble, common fecht fight fen fend (for themselves) haly holy dool misery an if An original song by Burns, making use of a traditional chorus. The chorus of this is part of an old song, one stanza of which I recollect:

Every day my wife tells me That ale and brandy will ruin me; But if gude liquor be my dead, This shall be written on my head, O gude wife count, etc.’ (Notes 55) The air seems to have been first published in SMM.

Songs and notes

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176 What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassie? Tune: What should a Lassie do wi an auld man?

What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassie, What can a young lassie do wi’ an auld man? Bad luck on the pennie that tempted my minnie To sell her poor Jenny for siller and lan’!

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He’s always compleenin frae morning to e’enin, 5 He hosts and he hirples the weary day lang: He’s doyl’t and he’s dozin, his blude it is frozen, O, dreary’s the night wi’ a crazy auld man! He hums and he hankers, he frets and he cankers, I never can please him, do’ a’ that I can; 10 He’s peevish, and jealous of a’ the young fellows, O, dool on the day I met wi’ an auld man! My auld auntie Katie upon me taks pity, I’ll do my endeavours to follow her plan; I’ll cross him, and wrack him untill I heart break him, 15 And then his auld brass will buy me a new pan. SMM no. 316 (1792), signed X; Hastie MS, f. 67 minnie Mother siller silver, money compleenin complaining e’enin evening hosts coughs hirples hobbles lang long doyl’t dazed crazy decrepit fallows fellows dool misery wrack torment Burns’s original treatment of a theme which figures in art and poetry of various periods. Herd’s collection contains a traditional fragment which he is likely to have known:

Kiss ye Jean, kiss ye Jean;— Never let an auld man kiss ye Jean, An auld man’s nae man till a young quean;— Never let an auld man kiss ye Jean. (Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II nos. 1–2)

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For the ending of the song he seems to have recalled ‘Auld Rob Morris’ in The Tea-Table Miscellany I no. 60:

Though auld Rob Morris be an elderly man, Yet his auld brass it will buy a new pan; Then, doughter, ye should na be so ill to shoo, For auld Rob Morris is the man ye maun loo. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) VI no. 5.

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177 O, how can I be blythe and glad? Tune: The bonie lad that’s far awa

O, how can I be blythe and glad, Or how can I gang brisk and braw, When the bonie lad that I lo’e best Is o’er the hills and far awa? When the bonie lad that I lo’e best 5 Is o’er the hills and far awa! My father pat me frae his door, My friends they hae disown’d me a’; But there is ane will tak my part, The bonie lad that’s far awa. 10

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But there is, etc. A pair o’ gloves he bought to me, And silken snoods he gae me twa, And I will wear them for his sake, 15 The bonie lad that’s far awa. And I will, etc. O weary winter soon will pass, And spring will cleed the birken shaw: 20 And my young babie will be born, And he’ll be hame that’s far awa.— And my young, etc. SMM no. 317 (1792), signed X; Hastie MS, f. 67 pat put snoods hair-bands cleed clothe birken shaw birch wood ‘“O how can I be blythe and glad” is mine’, Burns acknowledged in a letter to George Thomson in October 1794 (Letter 644, Letters II 317). He probably developed the idea from verses in David Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776) II no. 1 based on a seventeenth-century broadside, ‘The Unconstant Shepherd; or, The Forsaken Lass’s Lamentation’, which begins

O how can I be merry or glad, Or in my mind contented be; When the bonny, bonny lad whom I love best Is banish’d out of my company? Tho’ he is banish’d for my sake, And his true love I still remain, He has caused me many a night for to wake And adieu to my true love once again!’ The air was probably sent by Burns to the Museum.

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178 I do confess thou art sae fair Tune: The cuckoo

Songs and notes

533

I do confess thou art sae fair, I wad been o’er the lugs in luve, Had I na found the slightest prayer That lips could speak thy heart could muve. I do confess thee sweet, but find 5 Thou art sae thriftless o’ thy sweets, Thy favours are the silly wind That kisses ilka thing it meets. See yonder rose-bud, rich in dew, Amang its native briers sae coy, 10 How sune it tines its scent and hue, When pu’d and worn a common toy! Sic fate ere lang shall thee betide; Tho’ thou may gayly bloom a while, Yet sune thou shalt be thrown aside, 15 Like ony common weed and vile. SMM no. 321 (1792), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 69 wad been would have been lugs ears muve move sune soon tines loses pu’d pulled ‘This song’, Burns wrote, is altered from a poem by Sir Robert Ayton, private Secretary to Mary and Anne, queens of Scotland. The poem is to be found in James Watson’s Collection of Scots Poems, the earliest collection printed in Scotland. I think that I have improved the simplicity of the sentiments, by giving them a Scots dress. (Notes 55) Others, however, have deplored Burns’s handling of Ayton’s song (no. 45 in the Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse). Allan Cunningham comments, ‘It was easier to pass over it a careless and less gentle hand, and impair the elegance and lofty sentiments with which it closes’ (Songs of Scotland (1825) I 173–4). The air, originally perhaps Irish, is in Aird, Airs (1782) I no. 190.

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179 O, Galloway Tam came here to woo Tune: Galloway Tam

O, Galloway Tam came here to woo; I’d rather we’d gin him the brawnit cow; For our lass Bess may curse and ban The wanton wit o’ Galloway Tam. O, Galloway Tam came here to shear; 5 I’d rather we’d gin him the gude gray mare; He kist the gudewife and strack the gudeman;

Songs and notes

535

And that’s the tricks o’ Galloway Tam. SMM no. 325 (1792) gin given brawnit brindled gudewife housewife strack struck gudeman master Listed in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) as ‘Mr. Burns’s old words…’. A traditional song which Burns transmitted to the Museum. The tune is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI. no. 25. Robert Riddell notes, ‘I have seen an interlude (acted at a wedding) to this tune, called The wooing of the maiden. These entertainments are now much worn out in this part of Scotland. Two are still retained in Nithsdale…’ (Notes 71).

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180 As I cam down by yon castle wa’ Tune: As I cam down, etc.

As I cam down by yon castle wa’, And in by yon garden green, O, there I spied a bonie, bonie lass, But the flower-borders were us between. A bonie bonie lassie she was, 5 As ever mine eyes did see; O five hundred pounds would I give, For to have such a pretty bride as thee. To have such a pretty bride as me, Young man ye are sairly mista’en; 10 Tho’ ye were king o’ fair Scotland, I wad disdain to be your queen.

Songs and notes

537

Talk not so very high, bonie lass, O talk not so very, very high: The man at the fair that wad sell, 15 He maun learn at the man that wad buy. I trust to climb a far higher tree, And herry a far richer nest: Tak this advice o’ me, bonie lass, Humility wad set thee best. 20 SMM no. 326 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 68v sairly sorely herry plunder Burns comments, ‘This is a very popular Ayrshire song’ (Notes 56). He may well have sent the words of this song to Johnson without change. The air has not been traced before its printing in the Museum.

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181 O, where hae ye been, Lord Ronald, my son? Tune: Lord Ronald, my son

O, where hae ye been, Lord Ronald, my son? O, where hae ye been, Lord Ronald, my son? I hae been wi’ my sweetheart, mother, make my bed soon, For I’m weary wi’ the hunting, and fain wad lie down. What got ye frae your sweetheart, Lord Ronald, my son? 5 What got ye frae your sweetheart, Lord Ronald, my son? I hae got deadly poison, mother, make my bed soon; For life is a burden that soon I’ll lay down.— SMM no. 327 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 129v

Songs and notes

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fain glad, content A fragment of the traditional ballad Lord Randal. Kinsley points out that Burns is likely to have known more than two stanzas, and suggests that he may have reduced the ballad to make a song (Commentary 1390). If so, why did he take a quite different approach with ‘Hughie Graham’ and ‘Tam Lin’, transmitting complete texts to Johnson? The air appears as Lochaber in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) II no. 20. Burns comments on the tune, ‘This air, a very favourite one in Ayrshire, is evidently the original of Lochaber. In this manner, most of our finest modern airs have had their origin. Some early minstrel, or musical shepherd, composed the simple artless original air, which being pickt up by the more learned modern musician took the improved form it bears’ (Notes 57).

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182 I hae been at Crookieden Tune: The old highland laddie

I hae been at Crookieden— My bonie laddie, Highland laddie, Viewing Willie and his men— My bonie laddie, Highland laddie! There our foes that burnt and slew—5

Songs and notes

541

My bonie laddie, Highland laddie, There, at last, they gat their due— My bonie laddie, Highland laddie. Satan sits in his black neuk, My bonie laddie, Highland laddie. 10 Breaking sticks to roast the Duke, My bonie laddie, Highland laddie. The bloody monster gae a yell, My bonie laddie, Highland laddie. And loud the laugh gaed round a’ hell! 15 My bonie laddie, Highland laddie. SMM no. 332 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 71 neuk corner gae gave gaed went ‘Highland Laddie.—As this was a favourite theme with our later Scottish muses, there are several airs and songs of that name. That which I take to be the oldest is… “I hae been at Crookie-den”.’ (Burns’s notes on Scottish songs; Laing MSS, Edinburgh University Library; Burns Chronicle (1922) 11). ‘Willie’ (l. 3), the Duke (l. 11) is Cumberland, the Butcher of Culloden. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI no. 1.

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183 It is na, Jean, thy bonie face Tune: The maid’s complaint

Songs and notes

543

It is na, Jean, thy bonie face Nor shape that I admire, Altho’ thy beauty and thy grace Might weel awauk desire. Something in ilka part o’ thee 5 To praise, to love, I find; But dear as is thy form to me, Still dearer is thy mind. Nae mair ungen’rous wish I hae, Nor stronger in my breast, 10 Than, if I canna mak thee sae, At least to see thee blest. Content am I, if Heaven shall give But happiness to thee: And as wi’ thee I’d wish to live, 15 For thee I’d bear to die. SMM no. 333 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 72 awauk awaken Written for Jean Armour in 1788. ‘These were originally English verses’, says Burns, ‘I gave them their Scots dress’ (Notes 58). The air, The maid’s complaint, is in Oswald’s Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740) 14.

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184 O, saw ye my dearie, my Eppie McNab? Tune: Eppie McNab

Songs and notes

545

O, saw ye my dearie, my Eppie McNab? O, saw ye my dearie, my Eppie McNab; She’s down in the yard, she’s kissin the laird, She winna come hame to her ain Jock Rab! O come thy ways to me, my Eppie McNab! 5 O come thy ways to me, my Eppie McNab! What-e’er thou hast done, be it late, be it soon, Thou’s welcome again to thy ain Jock Rab!— What says she, my dearie, my Eppie McNab? What says she, my dearie, my Eppie McNab? 10 She lets thee to wit, that she has thee forgot, And for ever disowns thee, her ain Jock Rab.— O had I ne’er seen thee, my Eppie McNab! O had I ne’er seen thee, my Eppie McNab! As light as the air, and fause as thou’s fair, 15 Thou’s broken the heart o’ thy ain Jock Rab! SMM no. 336 (1792), signed X laird landed proprietor, squire winna will not wit know fause false The first four lines are a variant of a song collected by David Herd, while the rest of Burns’s song is based on another old song which, he explained, ‘has more wit than decency’ (Notes 58). Burns’s version emphasizes sentiment and pathos [cf. no. 142]. The air is in Oswald’s Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1742) 46 and in other collections.

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185 ‘Wha is that at my bower-door?’ Tune: Lass, an I come near thee

Burns’s skilful revision of a broadside ballad, which describes a girl’s approach to the ‘brisk and able man’ Finlay, and goes on:

Who’s that at my chamber door? And who but I? quoth Finlay. Lown carle, come no further. Indeed not I, quoth Finlay. Who’s that at my bedside, And who but I? quoth Finlay. Lown carle, had thee there. Indeed not I, quoth Finlay.

Songs and notes

547

Of all the men I ever did see, There’s none I love like Finlay; He was both courteous, stout and free, My heart’s delight is Finlay. (Centenary Burns (1896) III 376–7) Burns restricts his song to the dialogue by night, creating amusement through Findlay’s replies. The air is from Aird, Airs (1782) I no. 183.

‘Wha is that at my bower-door?’ ‘O, wha is it but Findlay.’ ‘Then gae your gate, ye’se nae be here:’ ‘Indeed maun I’, quo’ Findlay. ‘What mak ye sae like a thief?’ 5 ‘O, come and see’, quo’ Findlay; ‘Before the morn ye’ll work mischief?’ ‘Indeed will I’, quo’ Findlay. ‘Gif I rise and let you in’, ‘Let me in’, quo’ Findlay; 10 ‘Ye’ll keep me waukin wi’ your din?’ ‘Indeed will I’, quo’ Findlay. ‘In my bower if ye should stay’ ‘Let me stay’, quo’ Findlay; ‘I fear ye’ll bide till break o’ day’; 15 ‘Indeed will I’, quo’ Findlay. ‘Here this night if ye remain’, ‘I’ll remain’, quo’ Findlay; ‘I dread ye’ll learn the gate again’; ‘Indeed will I’, quo’ Findlay. 20 ‘What may pass within this bower’, ‘Let it pass’, quo’ Findlay; ‘Ye maun conceal till your last hour’;

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‘Indeed will I’, quo’ Findlay. SMM no. 337 (1792) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 74 gae your gate go your way ye’se you shall gif if waukin waking

Songs and notes

549

186 Bonie wee thing, canie wee thing Tune: Bonie wee thing

CHORUS Bonie wee thing, canie wee thing, Lovely wee thing, wert thou mine, I wad wear thee in my bosom

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Lest my jewel it should tine. Wishfully I look and languish 5 In that bonie face o’ thine, And my heart it stounds wi’ anguish, Lest my wee thing be na mine. Bonie wee, etc. Wit, and Grace, and Love, and Beauty, In ae constellation shine; 10 To adore thee is my duty, Goddess o’ this soul o’ mine. Bonie wee, etc. SMM no. 341 (1792), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 77 canie pleasant tine lose stounds thrills ‘Composed on my little idol, “The charming, lovely Davies”’ (Notes 59.) Deborah Davies was a petite and beautiful young Welsh woman, daughter of a Dr Davies of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, and a relative of Burns’s Ellisland neighbour Robert Riddell. Burns wrote another song in her honour (no. 164, ‘O how shall I, unskilfu’, try?’), explaining in a letter to her When I meet with a person ‘after my own heart’, I positively feel what an orthodox Protestant would call a species of idolatry, and which acts on my mind like inspiration, and I can no more resist rhyming on impulse, than an Eolian harp can refuse its tones to the streaming air. (Letter 472A, Letters II 112) He also composed an epigram, On being asked why God had made Miss D—so little and Mrs A—so big:

Ask why God made the GEM so small, And why so huge the granite? Because God meant, mankind should set The higher value on it. (Kinsley no. 410)

Songs and notes

551

The tune occurs in Straloch’s MS (1627) as Wo betyd thy wearie bodie, and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) IX no. 1.

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187 There was a battle in the north Tune: A country lass

There was a battle in the north, And nobles there was many, And they hae kill’d Sir Charlie Hay, And they laid the wyte on Geordie. O he has written a lang letter, 5 He sent it to his lady; Ye maun cum up to Enbrugh town To see what words o’ Geordie. When first she look’d the letter on, She was baith red and rosy; 10 But she had na read a word but twa, Till she wallow’t like a lily. Gar get to me my gude grey steed,

Songs and notes

553

My menzie a’ gae wi’ me; For I shall neither eat nor drink, 15 Till Enbrugh town shall see me. And she has mountit her gude grey steed, Her menzie a’ gaed wi’ her; And she did neither eat nor drink Till Enbrugh town did see her. 20 And first appear’d the fatal block, And syne the aix to head him; And Geordie cumin down the stair, And bands o’ airn upon him. But tho’ he was chain’d in fetters strang, 25 O’ airn and steel sae heavy, There was na ane in a’ the court, Sae bra’ a man as Geordie. O she’s down on her bended knee, I wat she’s pale and weary, 30 O pardon, pardon, noble king, And gie me back my Dearie! I hae born seven sons to my Geordie dear, The seventh ne’er saw his daddie: O pardon, pardon, noble king, 35 Pity a waefu’ lady! Gar bid the headin-man mak haste! Our king reply’d fu’ lordly: O noble king, tak a’ that’s mine, But gie me back my Geordie. 40 The Gordons cam and the Gordons ran, And they were stark and steady; And ay the word amang them a’ Was, Gordons keep you ready.

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An agèd lord at the king’s right hand 45 Says, noble king, but hear me; Gar her tell down five thousand pound And gie her back her Dearie. Some gae her marks, some gae her crowns, Some gae her dollars many; 50 And she’s tell’d down five thousand pounds, And she’s gotten again her Dearie. She blinkit blythe in her Geordie’s face, Says, dear I’ve bought thee, Geordie: But there sud been bluidy bouks on the green, 55 Or I had tint my laddie. ***

He claspit her by the middle sma’, And he kist her lips sae rosy: The fairest flower o’woman-kind Is my sweet, bonie Lady! 60 SMM no. 346 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 76 wyte blame wallow’t withered gar get have brought gude good menzie retinue Enbrugh Edinburgh syne then aix axe airn iron strang strong wat know waefu’ woeful stark strong tell down pay out sud should bouks carcases tint lost sma’ slender

Songs and notes

555

A traditional ballad [Child, no. 209], revised by Burns for the Museum. The subject possibly concerns one of the earls of Huntly. In the Hastie MS Burns has a note on a song from Herd’s collection, ‘Altho’ I be but a Country Lass’: ‘Put likewise after this song the inclosed old ballad, as it sings to the same tune.—It is rather too long, but it is very pretty, and never that I know of was printed before’. Burns seems to have recovered not only the words but the air, which may be as old as the early seventeenth century. Geordie has been variously identified as the fourth, fifth or sixth earl of Huntly (Kinsley 1394), The sixth Earl rose against James VI in 1589, and was imprisoned as a traitor, before being set free during the celebration of James’s marriage.

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188 As I was a wand’ring ae midsummer e’enin Tune: Rinn m’eudial mo mhealladh

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As I was a wand’ring ae midsummer e’enin, The pipers and youngsters were makin their game, Amang them I spyed my faithless fause luver, Which bled a’ the wounds o’ my dolour again. CHORUS Weel, since he has left me, may pleasure gae wi’ him; 5 I may be distress’d, but I winna complain: I’ll flatter my fancy I may get anither, My heart it shall never be broken for ane. I could na get sleepin till dawin, for greetin; The tears trickl’d down like the hail and the rain: 10 Had I na got greetin, my heart wad a broken, For Oh, luve forsaken’s a tormenting pain! Weel, since he has, etc. Although he has left me for greed o’ the siller, I dinna envy him the gains he can win: I rather wad bear a’ the lade o’ my sorrow, 15 Than ever hae acted sae faithless to him. Weel, since he has, etc. SMM no. 348 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 78 ae a e’enin evening fause false luver lover winna will not anither another dawin dawn greetin weeping siller silver, money dinna do not lade load Burns’s revision of a song included in David Herd’s collection:

As I was a walking ae May-morning,

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The fiddlers and youngsters were making their game; And there I saw my faithless lover, And a’ my sorrows returned again. Well, since he is gane, now joy gang wi’ him; It’s never be he shall gar me complain: I’ll chear up my heart, and I will get another, I’ll never lay a’ my love upon ane. I could na get sleeping yestreen for weeping, The tears ran down like showers o’ rain; And had na I got greiting my heart wad a broken; And O! but love’s a tormenting pain. (Hecht 132–3) Burns has rejected the idea expressed in ‘I’ll chear up my heart, and I’ll soon get another’, and has added lines 13–16, which reveal the characters of both the false lover and the deserted girl. The air is from Patrick Macdonald’s Collection of Highland Vocal Airs (1784).

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189 The weary pund, the weary pund Tune: The weary pund o’ tow

Burns has created this sad yet funny marriage song, with its cleverly insistent chorus, from hints provided by a rather clumsy song included in The Charmer (1782) I 339, and other song books:

I bought my woman and my wife half a pund of tow, I think ‘twill serve them a’ their life to spin as fast’s they dow; I thought it had been ended when scarce it was begun, And I believe my wife sall end her life and leave the tow unspun…

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Tow is the fibre of flax made ready for spinning by a number of processes, including scutching (beating) and heckling (combing, dressing). In writing this song, Burns perhaps recalled a New Year drinking episode at Irvine in 1781–2 when the flax business in which he had a share was burned down, allegedly because of the carelessness of his partner’s wife (‘to finish the whole, while we were giving a welcome carousal to the New year, our shop, by the drunken carelessness of my Partner’s wife, took fire and was burnt to ashes and left me, like a true poet, not worth a sixpence’. Letter 125, Letters I 142). The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 4.

CHORUS The weary pund, the weary pund, The weary pund o’ tow! I think my wife will end her life, Before she spin her tow. I bought my wife a stane o’ lint 5 As gude as e’er did grow, And a’ that she has made o’ that Is ae poor pund o’ tow. The weary, etc. There sat a bottle in a bole, Beyont the ingle low; 10 And ay she took the tither souk, To drouk the stourie tow. The weary, etc. Quoth I, for shame, ye dirty dame, Gae spin your tap o’ tow! She took the rock, and wi’ a knock 15 She brak it o’er my pow. The weary, etc. At last her feet, I sang to see’t, Gaed foremost o’er the knowe; And or I wad anither jad, I’ll wallop in a tow. 20 SMM no. 350 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 80

The songs of Robert burns

pund pound tow fibre of flax prepared for spinning stane stone lint flax for spinning bole recess ingle low firelight tither other souk swig drouk drench stourie dusty tap portion of lint put on distaff rock distaff brak broke pow head gaed went knowe mound or before wad marry jad wench wallop swing

562

Songs and notes

563

190 I hae a wife o’ my ain Tune: I hae a wife o’ my ain

I hae a wife o’ my ain, I’ll partake wi’ naebody; I’ll tak cuckold frae nane, I’ll gie cuckold to naebody. I hae a penny to spend, 5 There—thanks to naebody! I hae naething to lend, I’ll borrow frae naebody. I am naebody’s lord,

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I’ll be slave to naebody; 10 I hae a gude braid sword, I’ll tak dunts frae naebody. I’ll be merry and free, I’ll be sad for naebody; Naebody cares for me, 15 I care for naebody. SMM no. 352 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 82 braid broad dunts blows Burns’s first editor and biographer, James Currie, claimed that this song was written shortly after the poet’s marriage to Jean Armour in 1788, when ‘sentiments of independence buoyed up his mind, pictures of domestic content and peace rose on his imagination, and a few days passed away…the most tranquil, if not the happiest, he had ever experienced’. According to William Stenhouse, the tune, which Burns could have found in Bremner’s Reels (1759) or Stewart’s Reels (1761) was ‘formerly adapted to some trifling verses, beginning

I hae a wife o’ my awn, I’ll be haddin’ to naebody; I hae a pat and a pan, I’ll borrow frae naebody.’ (Stenhouse 326) Cf. the conclusion of a song which was very popular in Scotland in the eighteenth century:

There was a jolly miller once, Lived on the river Dee; He worked and sang from morning til night, No lark more blithe than he. And this the burden of his song Forever used to be, I care for nobody, no! not I, If nobody cares for me.

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(Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and Peter Opie (Oxford 1951) no. 352 and notes)

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191 O, when she cam ben, she bobbed fu’ law! Tune: When she cam ben she bobbit

O, when she cam ben, she bobbed fu’ law! O, when she cam ben, she bobbed fu’ law! And when she cam ben, she kiss’d Cockpen, And syne she deny’d she did it at a’. And was na Cockpen right saucy witha’, 5 And was na Cockpen right saucy witha’, In leaving the dochter of a lord, And kissing a Collier-lassie an’ a’. O never look down, my lassie at a’,

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O never look down, my lassie at a’, 10 Thy lips are as sweet and thy figure compleat, As the finest dame in castle or ha’. Tho’ thou has nae silk and holland sae sma, Tho’ thou has nae silk and holland sae sma, Thy coat and thy sark are thy ain handywark 15 And Lady Jean was never sae braw. SMM no. 353 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 83 ben indoors bob curtsy fu’ law very low syne then witha’ withal dochter daughter ha’ hall holland fine linen sma narrow sark shirt handywark handiwork Cockpen is a parish in Midlothian. According to tradition, the laird of Cockpen in the song was a crony of Charles II. Burns borrowed the first six lines from a traditional song collected by David Herd, and in his revision of what follows, subtly ‘lyricized the character of the flirtatious laird’ (Kinsley 1396). The words ‘collier-lassie’, as distinct from ‘collier’s lassie’ indicate that the girl in question worked down a mine. The song in Herd’s collection reads:

When she came ben she bobbit, And when she came ben she bobbit. And when she came ben she kist COCKPEN, And then deny’d that she did it. And was nae COCKPEN right sawcy, And was nae COCKPEN right sawcy? He len’d his lady to gentlemen, And he kist the collier-lassie. And was nae COCKPEN right able, And was nae COCKPEN right able?

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He left his lady with gentlemen, And he kist the lass in the stable. O are you wi’ bairn, my chicken? O are you wi’ bairn, my chicken? O if I am not, I hope to be, E’er the green leaves be shaken. (Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II 206–7) Burns later proposed ‘restoring old simplicity’ to the song for George Thomson by omitting ‘fu’ law’, ‘at a’’, etc. and placing crotchet stops on ‘bobbed’, ‘did it’, etc. (Letter 644, Letters II 315). The air is an old one, which occurs in the Leyden and Sinkler manuscripts. Burns may have known it from Oswald’s Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740), or his Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I. It was also printed in Aird’s Airs (1782).

Songs and notes

569

192 An’ O, for ane-and-twenty, Tam! Tune: The moudiewart

CHORUS An’ O, for ane-and-twenty, Tam!

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And hey, sweet ane-and-twenty, Tam! I’ll learn my kin a rattlin sang An I saw ane-and-twenty, Tam. They snool me sair, and haud me down, 5 And gar me look like bluntie, Tam; But three short years will soon wheel roun’—, And then comes ane-and-twenty, Tam. An’ O, etc. A gleib o’ lan’, a claut o’ gear, Was left me by my Auntie, Tam; 10 At kith or kin I need na spier, An I saw ane-and-twenty, Tam. An’ O, etc. They’ll hae me wed a wealthy coof, Tho’ I mysel hae plenty, Tam; But hearst thou, laddie, there’s my loof, 15 I’m thine at ane-and-twenty, Tam! An’ O, etc. SMM no. 355 (1792), signed ‘B’; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ learn teach rattlin sang riotous song snool snub haud hold bluntie fool roun’ round gleib portion claut o’ gear handful of property spier ask coof fool loof palm One of a group of songs in which Burns chooses to write from the viewpoint of a livelyminded girl, impatient with her elders. Burns acknowledged this song as his own in a letter to George Thomson (19 October 1794), adding that he was unhappy with the musical arrangement in the Museum: ‘if you will get any of our ancienter Scots Fiddlers to play you, in Strathspey time, “The Moudiewort,” (that is the name of the air) I think it will delight you’ (Letter 644, Letters II 317). James Kinsley suggests that he wanted the

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speed of the air adjusted to quadruple time. Thomson did not act on his advice, preferring to print a different air, Cold and raw. The mole or moudiewart, which gave its name to the tune of Burns’s choice printed here, was celebrated in Jacobite tradition because the death of William of Orange was caused by his horse stumbling on a mole-hill.

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193 O, Kenmure’s on and awa, Willie Tune: Kenmure’s on and awa

O, Kenmure’ s on and awa, Willie, O, Kenmure’s on and awa;

Songs and notes

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An’ Kenmure’s lord’s the bravest lord That ever Galloway saw. Success to Kenmure’s band, Willie, 5 Success to Kenmure’s band! There’s no a heart that fears a Whig, That rides by Kenmure’s hand. Here’s Kenmure’s health in wine, Willie, Here’s Kenmure’s health in wine, 10 There ne’er was a coward o’ Kenmure’s blude, Nor yet o’ Gordon’s Line. O Kenmure’s lads are men, Willie, O Kenmure’s lads are men, Their hearts and swords are metal true, 15 And that their faes shall ken. They’ll live, or die wi’ fame, Willie, They’ll live, or die wi’ fame, But soon wi’ sounding victorie May Kenmure’s Lord come hame. 20 Here’s Him that’s far awa, Willie, Here’s Him that’s far awa, And here’s the flower that I lo’e best, The rose that’s like the snaw. SMM no. 359 (1792) awa away faes foes snaw snow William Stenhouse states that Burns ‘transmitted’ this song to Johnson, ‘in his own handwriting, together with the melody’ (Stenhouse 339). A holograph draft at Alloway shows that Burns at least revised it. No earlier version of the words (or tune) has been discovered. It is therefore conceivable that Burns wrote the song in its entirety, despite Cromek’s statement in Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song (1810) that it ‘has long been popular in the low parts of Scotland’. Over all, however, the external and internal

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evidence suggests that in this instance Burns acted as collector and reviser, rather than song-writer. William Gordon, sixth Viscount Kenmure, raised the Jacobite standard in October 1715 at Lochmaben, and had chief command of the rebel forces in the south of Scotland…. He was a grave full-aged gentleman; of a singular good temper; of great experience in political business; but of little or none in military affairs. Marching with the rebels into England, he was taken at Preston, 13th November…sentenced to be executed, and was beheaded on Towerhill, 24th February 1716. (Scots Peerage, ed. J.P.Wood (1813) II 29) ‘O Kenmure’s on and awa, Willie’ gained considerable popularity as a Jacobite song. Lady Huntly, Scott wrote on 3 April 1820, plays Scotch tunes like a Highland angel. She ran a set of variations on ‘Kenmure’s on and awa’,’ which I told her were enough to raise a whole country-side. I never in my life heard such fire thrown into that sort of music. (J.G.Lockhart, Life of Scott (1914) III 381)

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575

194 O, leeze me on my spinnin-wheel Tune: Sweet’s the lass that loves me

It is possible, even likely, that Burns reworked an earlier song on this attractive pastoral theme; but no close precedent has been found. Ramsay has a variant of an English song, ‘As I sat by my spinning-wheel’ in The Tea-Table Miscellany (1724), but it is very different. Burns’s words are beautifully matched to the rippling melody. The contrast between empty wealth and rural content in the final stanza is very characteristic of the

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poet, although it could no doubt be argued that its defiant note threatens the overall unity of mood in the song. The air is in Playford’s Original Scotch Tunes (1700) and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753) V no. 10.

O, leeze me on my spinnin-wheel, And leeze me on my rock and reel, Frae tap to tae that cleeds me bien, And haps me fiel and warm at e’en! I’ll set me down, and sing and spin, 5 While laigh descends the simmer sun, Blest wi’ content, and milk and meal— O, leeze me on my spinnin-wheel! On ilka hand the burnies trot, And meet below my theekit cot; 10 The scented birk and hawthorn white Across the pool their arms unite, Alike to screen the birdie’s nest, And little fishes caller rest: The sun blinks kindly in the biel’, 15 Where, blythe I turn my spinnin-wheel. On lofty aiks the cushats wail, And Echo cons the doolfu’ tale; The lintwhites in the hazel braes, Delighted, rival ithers lays: 20 The craik amang the claver hay, The pairtrick whirrin o’er the ley, The swallow jinkin round my shiel, Amuse me at my spinnin-wheel. Wi’ sma’ to sell, and less to buy, 25 Aboon distress, below envy, O wha wad leave this humble state, For a’ the pride of a’ the great? Amid their flairing, idle toys, Amid their cumbrous, dinsome joys, 30 Can they the peace and pleasure feel

Songs and notes

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Of Bessy at her spinnin-wheel! SMM no. 360 (1792) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 85 leeze me I am delighted rock distaff frae tap to tae from top to toe cleeds clothes bien comfortably haps wraps fiel cosily e’en evening laigh low simmer summer burnies stream theekit cot thatched cottage birk birch caller fresh, cool biel’ shelter aiks oaks cushats wood-pigeons doolfu’ unhappy lintwhites linnets ithers others craik corn-crake claver clover pairtrick partridge ley pasture shiel hut sma’ little flairing gaudy dinsome noisy

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195 Whare live ye, my bonie lass? Tune: My collier laddie

Stenhouse writes, The words of this song…as well as the tune, were transmitted by Burns to Johnson in the poet’s own hand-writing. It appears in no other collection. In the Reliques, Burns says, ‘I do not know a blyther old song than this.’ The greater part of it, however, is his own composition. (Stenhouse (1853) 340) Burns almost certainly revised the song, but, as Kinsley argues, it is ‘probably traditional’ (Kinsley 1398).

Whare live ye, my bonie lass, And tell me how they ca’ ye? My name, she says, is Mistress Jean, And I follow my Collier laddie. My name, she says, is Mistress Jean, 5

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And I follow my Collier laddie. See you not yon hills and dales The sun shines on sae brawlie? They a’ are mine and they shall be thine, Gin ye’ll leave your Collier laddie. 10 They a’ are, etc. Ye shall gang in gay attire, Weel buskit up sae gaudy; And ane to wait on every hand, Gin ye’ll leave your Collier laddie. And ane to wait, etc. Tho’ ye had a’ the sun shines on, 15 And the earth conceals sae lowly; I wad turn my back on you and it a’, And embrace my Collier laddie. I wad turn, etc. I can win my five pennies in a day And spen’t at night fu’ brawlie; 20 And make my bed in the Collier’s neuk, And lie down wi’ my Collier laddie. And make my bed, etc. Loove for loove is the bargain for me, Tho’ the wee Cot-house should haud me; And the warld before me to win my bread, 25 And fair fa’ my Collier laddie! And the warld before me to win my bread, And fair fa’ my Collier laddie! SMM no. 361 (1792) ca’ call, name gin if buskit dressed win earn fu’ full

The songs of Robert burns

neuk corner loove love Cot-house cottage haud hold warld world

580

Songs and notes

581

196 The shepherd’s wife cries o’er the knowe Tune: Unnamed

The Shepherd’s wife cries o’er the knowe, Will ye come hame, will ye come hame; The Shepherd’s wife cries o’er the knowe,

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Will ye come hame again e’en, jo? O what will ye gie me to my Supper, 5 Gin I come hame, gin I come hame? O what will ye gie me to my Supper, Gin I come hame again e’en, jo? Ye’se get a panfu’ o’ plumpin parridge, And butter in them, and butter in them, 10 Ye’se get a panfu’ o’ plumpin parridge, Gin ye’ll come hame again e’en, jo.— Ha, ha, how! that’s naething that dow, I winna come hame, I canna come hame; Ha, ha, how! that’s naething that dow, 15 I winna come hame gin e’en, jo.— The Shepherd’s wife, etc. What will I get, etc. A reekin fat hen, weel fryth’d i’ the pan, Gin ye’ll come hame, gin ye’ll come hame, 20 A reekin fat hen weel fryth’d i’ the pan, Gin ye’ll come hame again e’en, jo.— Ha, ha, how!, etc. The Shepherd’s wife, etc. What will I get, etc. 25 A weel made bed and a pair o’ clean sheets, Gin ye’ll come hame, gin ye’ll come hame, A weel made bed and a pair o’ clean sheets, Gin ye’ll come hame again e’en, jo.— Ha, ha, how!, etc. 30 The Shepherd’s wife, etc. What will I get, etc. A luving wife in lily-white linens,

Songs and notes

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Gin ye’ll come hame, gin ye’ll come hame, A luving wife in lily-white linens, 35 Gin ye’ll come hame again e’en, jo.— Ha, ha, how! that’s something that dow, I will come hame, I will come hame; Ha, ha, how! that’s something that dow, I will come hame again e’en, jo.—40 SMM no. 362 (1792) knowe hill hame home again e’en before evening jo sweetheart gin if ye’se you will plumpin fattening parridge porridge dow avails weel fryth’d well fried *** Burns’s revision of a song in David Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776; reprint 1869, vol. 2, pp. 182–3). Burns has made a number of minor changes, and for delicacy’s sake has substituted his own lines 33–6 for

A pair of white legs, and a good cogg-wame, An ye’ll come hame, &c in the original. Stenhouse states that Burns communicated the air printed in the Museum, but that the song was formerly sung to Bab at the Bowster (Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland, p. 340).

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Songs and notes

585

197 There liv’d a man in yonder glen Tune: Johnie Blunt

There liv’d a man in yonder glen, And John Blunt was his name, O; He maks gude maut, and he brews gude ale, And he bears a wondrous fame, O. The wind blew in the hallan ae night, 5 Fu‘snell out o’er the moore O; ‘Rise up, rise, auld Luckie,’ he says, ‘Rise up and bar the door, O.’ They made a paction ‘tween them twa, They made it firm and sure, O, 10 Whae’er sud speak the foremost word, Should rise and bar the door, O. Three travellers that had tint their gate, As thro’ the hills they foor, O,

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They airted by the line o’ light 15 Fu’ straught to Johnie Blunt’s door, O. They haurl’d auld Luckie out o’ her bed, And laid her on the floor, O; But never a word auld Luckie wad say, For barrin o’ the door, O. 20 ‘Ye’ve eaten my bread, ye hae druken my ale, ‘And ye’ll mak my auld wife a whore, O—’ Aha, Johnie Blunt! ye hae spoke the first word, Get up and bar the door, O. SMM no. 365 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 89 maut malt hallan partition fu’ snell very keen paction pact whae’er sud whoever should tint lost gateway foor went airted were guided straught straight haurl’d hurled druken drunken Burns’s version of a traditional ballad, which is also found in David Herd’s collection:

It fell about the Martinmas time And a gay time it was then; When our guidwife had puddings to make And she boiled them in the pan… (Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II 159–60). John Blunt is a proverbial name for a dull-witted fellow. According to Stenhouse, Burns communicated the air of the ballad to the Museum.

Songs and notes

587

198 In simmer, when the hay was mawn Tune: The country lass

In simmer, when the hay was mawn And corn wav’d green in ilka field, While claver blooms white o’er the lea, And roses blaw in ilka bield, Blythe Bessie in the milking shiel, Says I’ll be wed come o’t what will; 5

The songs of Robert burns

Out spak a dame in wrinkled eild:— O’ gude advisement comes nae ill. Its ye hae wooers mony ane, And lassie ye’re but young ye ken; 10 Then wait a wee, and canie wale, A routhie butt, a routhie ben: There’s Johnie o’ the Buskie glen, Fu’ is his barn, fu’ is his byre; Tak this frae me, my bonie hen, 15 It’s plenty beets the luver’s fire. For Johnie o’ the Buskie-glen, I dinna care a single flie; He loes sae weel his craps and kye, He has nae loove to spare for me: 20 But blythe’s the blink o’ Robie’s e’e, And weel I wat he loes me dear; Ae blink o’ him I wad na gie For Buskie-glen and a’ his gear. O thoughtless lassie, life’s a faught, 25 The canniest gate, the strife is sair; But ay fu’-han’t is fechtin best, A hungry care’s an unco care: But some will spend, and some will spare, An’ wilfu’ folk maun hae their will; 30 Syne as ye brew, my maiden fair, Keep mind that ye maun drink the yill. O gear will buy me rigs o’ land, And gear will buy me sheep and kye; But the tender heart o’ leesome loove, 35 The gowd and siller canna buy: We may be poor, Robie and I, Light is the burden Loove lays on; Content and Love brings peace and joy, What mair hae Queens upon a throne. 40

588

Songs and notes

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SMM no. 366 (1792), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 90 mawn mown claver clover lea pasture blaw blow bield shelter shiel hut eild age advisement advice canie wale choose with care routhie plentiful butt outer room ben inner room fu’ full byre cowshed beets ‘adds fuel to fire’ (Burns) dinna do not flie fly craps and kye crops and cattle loove love blink glance wat know wad na would not gear possessions faught struggle gate way sair hard ay always fu’-han’t full-handed fechtin fighting unco formidable syne then maun must yill ale rigs ridges leesome lightsome gowd and siller gold and silver *** Burns acknowledged this song in a letter to George Thomson of October 1794 (Letter 644, Letters II 317). Allan Cunningham comments that ‘In simmer when the hay was mawn’

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has the air and tone of the ancient lyrics of Caledonia. It hovers between the dramatic and the sentimental, and partakes of the character of both. Our old songs abound with conversations, and questions, and replies. (Cunningham, Works of Robert Burns (1834) IV 239) While the song does not have the humour of another song about a girl in love, ‘Tam Glen’, it presents with considerable spirit the contrasting points of view of canny age— speaking in proverbial phrases—and romantic youth. The air The country lass is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) II no. 38.

Songs and notes

591

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592

199 Turn again, thou fair Eliza! Tune: A Gaelic air

Turn again, thou fair Eliza! Ae kind blink before we part; Rue on thy despairing lover— Canst thou break his faithfu’ heart? Turn again, thou fair Eliza! 5 If to love thy heart denies For pity hide the cruel sentence Under friendship’s kind disguise! Thee, dear maid, hae I offended.

Songs and notes

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The offence is loving thee: 10 Canst thou wreck his peace for ever, Wha for thine wad gladly die! While the life beats in my bosom, Thou shalt mix in ilka throe: Turn again, thou lovely maiden, 15 Ae sweet smile on me bestow. Not the bee upon the blossom, In the pride o’ sinny noon; Not the little sporting fairy, All beneath the simmer moon; 20 Not the Poet in the moment Fancy lightens in his e’e, Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture, That thy presence gies to me. SMM no. 368 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 92 blink glance sinny sunny simmer summer A song written in honour of James Johnson, to whom Burns wrote on 15 November 1788, Have you never a fair goddess that leads you a wild-goose chase of amorous devotion? Let me know a few of her qualities, such as whether she be rather, black or fair, plump or thin, short or tall, etc, and choose your air, and I shall task my muse to celebrate her. (Letter 258, Letters I 300) The manuscript in the British Library shows that the name Johnson chose was Rabina; but this was changed to Eliza when the song went into print. In giving Johnson instructions about which tune to print, Burns showed confident knowledge of music: there is a Perthshire tune in M’Donald’s collection of Highland Airs which is much admired in this country; I intended the verses to sing to that air… There is another air in the same collection, an Argyleshire air, which with a trifling alteration will do charmingly… The alterations are: in the fourth bar of the first and third strains, which are to be the tune,

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instead of the crotchet C, and the quavers G and E, at the beginning of the bar make an entire minim in E, I mean E, the lowest line. Johnson printed both melodies. The second one is used here.

Songs and notes

595

200 Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear! Tune: Ye Jacobites by name

Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear! Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear! Ye Jacobites by name Your fautes I will proclaim, Your doctrines I maun blame—5 You shall hear! What is Right, and what is Wrang, by the law, by the law? What is Right, and what is Wrang, by the law? What is Right, and what is Wrang? A short sword, and a lang, 10

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596

A weak arm, and a strang For to draw. What makes heroic strife, fam’d afar, fam’d afar? What makes heroic strife, fam’d afar? What makes heroic strife? 15 To whet th’ assassin’s knife, Or hunt a Parent’s life Wi’ bludie war. Then let your schemes alone, in the state, in the state, Then let your schemes alone, in the state, 20 Then let your schemes alone, Adore the rising sun, And leave a man undone To his fate. SMM no. 371 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 93 fautes faults strang strong Almost certainly a traditional song, only lightly revised by Burns. The Hastie MS in the British Library shows that the last stanza was added at some time after the rest of the song was written down or transcribed. The ambiguous attitude conveyed by the words as a whole—‘pithy ironical satire couched in equivocal terms which may be read by either Whig or Tory’ (Dick 464)—is typical of eighteenth-century political song tradition. The air is English.

Songs and notes

597

201 O, luve will venture in where it daur na weel be seen Tune: The posie

O, luve will venture in where it daur na weel be seen; O, luve will venture in, where wisdom ance has been; But I will down yon river rove amang the wood sae green, And a’ to pu’ a posie to my ain dear May! The primrose I will pu’, the firstling o’ the year; 5 And I will pu’ the pink, the emblem o’ my Dear, For she is the pink o’ womankind, and blooms without a peer;

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And a’ to be a posie to my ain dear May. I’ll pu’ the budding rose when Phebus peeps in view, For it’s like a baumy kiss o’ her sweet, bonie mou; 10 The hyacinth’s for constancy wi’ its unchanging blue, And a’ to be a posie to my ain dear May. The lily it is pure, and the lily it is fair, And in her lovely bosom I’ll place the lily there; The daisy’s for simplicity and unaffected air, 15 And a’ to be a posie to my ain dear May. The hawthorn I will pu’, wi’ its locks o’ siller grey, Where like an aged man it stands at break o’ day, But the songster’s nest within the bush I winna tak away; And a’ to be a posie to my ain dear May. 20 The woodbine I will pu’ when the e’ening star is near, And the diamond draps o’ dew shall be her een sae clear; The violet’s for modesty which weel she fa’s to wear, And a’ to be a posie to my ain dear May. I’ll tie the posie round wi’ the silken band o’ luve, 25 And I’ll place it in her breast, and I’ll swear by a’ abuve, That to my latest draught o’ life the band shall ne’er remuve, And this will be a posie to my ain dear May. SMM no. 373 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 96 luve love daur dare ance once pu’ pull ain own baumy balmy mou mouth siller silver winna will not draps drops fa’s falls abuve above

Songs and notes

599

The theme is a common one in love song, but Burns handles it with great poise and freshness. He informed George Thomson that ‘the air was taken down from Mrs Burns’s voice—It is well known in the West Country, but the old words are trash’ (Letter 644, Letters II 316). He acknowledged to Thomson that the new song was his own composition. In a longer note on the air, he commented, It appears evident that Oswald composed his ‘Roslin Castle’ on the modulation of this air. In the second part of Oswald’s, in the three first bars, he has either hit on a wonderful similarity to, or else he has entirely borrowed the three first bars of the older air; and the close of both tunes is almost exactly the same. The old verses to which it was sung, when I took down the notes from a country girl’s voice, had no great merit. The following is a specimen:—

There was a pretty May, and a-milkin’ she went, Wi’ her red, rosy cheeks and her coal-black hair: And she has met a young man a-comin’ o’er the bent; With a double and adieu to thee fair May. O whare are ye goin’, my ain pretty May, Wi’ thy red, rosy cheeks and thy coal-black hair; Unto the yowes a-milkin’, kind Sir, she says, With a double and adieu to thee fair May. What if I gang alang wi’ thee, my ain pretty May, Wi thy red, rosy cheeks and thy coal-black hair; Wad I be ought the warre o’ that, kind Sir, she says, With a double and adieu to thee fair May. &c. (Edinburgh University Library, Laing MSS, III 586. See Burns Chronicle (1922) 9) James Dick describes the melody as ‘one of the best-constructed and most artistic…in the Scottish collections of the eighteenth century’ (Dick 394).

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600

202 Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed Tune: Sic a wife as Willie had

The name William Wastle occurs in a Scottish version of the traditional rhyme ‘I’m the king of the castle’, printed in the seventeenth century:

I William of the Wastle Am now in my Castle, And aw the Dogs in the Town

Songs and notes

601

Shan’t gar me gang down. A copy of the rhyme is said to have been sent to the enemy by the governor of Hume Castle in Roxburghshire when it was under siege by the Roundheads in 1651. (Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and Peter Opie (Oxford 1951) no. 287 and notes). Willie Wastle in Burns’s song clearly derives from this old rhyme. Interestingly, the song shows a further specific connection with the Borders. Linkumdoddie was a cottage on the Moffat-Tweedsmuir Road, some five miles above Broughton, where the Logan Water joins the Tweed. It was inhabited in Burns’s time by a weaver called Gideon Thomson. Burns stayed in the area on his Border tour in 1787. In 1838 one Jean Jaffray said that she could tell the name of Willie’s wife, ‘but there is no use in opening old sores’. ‘Willie Wastle’ is typical of a certain sort of Scottish comic song making use of a large number of vernacular words. Part of the fun comes from the fact that while the overall tone of the description is never in doubt, each word has to be understood if the full grotesque effect is to be appreciated.

Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed, The spot they ca’d it Linkumdoddie; Willie was a wabster gude Cou’d stown a clue wi’ ony bodie; He had a wife was dour and din, 5 O, Tinkler Maidgie was her mither; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her. She has an e’e, she has but ane, The cat has twa the very colour; 10 Five rusty teeth forbye a stump, A clapper tongue wad deave a miller; A whiskin beard about her mou, Her nose and chin they threaten ither; Sic a wife as Willie had, 15 I wad na gie a button for her. She’s bow-hough’d, she’s hem-shin’d, Ae limpin leg a hand breed shorter; She’s twisted right she’s twisted left, To balance fair in ilka quarter: 20 She has a hump upon her breast,

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The twin o’ that upon her shouther; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her. Auld baudrans by the ingle sits, 25 An’ wi’ her loof her face a washin; But Willie’s wife is nae sae trig, She dights her grunzie wi’ a hushion: Her walie nieves like midden-creels, Her face wad fyle the Logan-water; 30 Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her. SMM no. 376 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 98 dwalt dwelt ca’d called wabster weaver cou’d could stown a clue have stolen a ball of thread dour sullen din dirty tinkler tinker mither mother forbye besides clapper rattling wad deave would deafen whiskin whiskery mou mouth ither each other bow-hough’d bandy-legged hem-shin’d with crooked shins hand breed hand’s breadth shouther shoulder baudrans cat ingle fireside loof paw nae sae trig not so neat dights wipes grunzie snout hushion footless stocking wallie nieves ample fists

Songs and notes

midden-creels manure-baskets fyle dirty

603

The songs of Robert burns

604

203 O, Lady Mary Ann looks o’er the castle wa’ Tune: Lady Mary Ann

O, Lady Mary Ann looks o’er the castle wa’, She saw three bonie boys playin at the ba’, The youngest he was the flower amang them a’, My bonie laddie’s young, but he’s growin yet. O Father, O Father, an ye think it fit, 5 We’ll send him a year to the College yet, We’ll sew a green ribban round about his hat, And that will let them ken he’s to marry yet.

Songs and notes

605

Lady Mary Ann was a flower in the dew, Sweet was its smell and bonie was its hue, 10 And the langer it blossom’d, the sweeter it grew, For the lily in the bud will be bonier yet. Young Charlie Cochran was the sprout of an aik, Bonie, and bloomin and straught was its make, The sun took delight to shine for its sake, 15 And it will be the brag o’ the forest yet. The Simmer is gane when the leaves they were green, And the days are awa that we hae seen, But far better days I trust will come again, For my bonie laddie’s young but he’s growin yet. 20 SMM no. 377 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 99 wa’ wall ba’ ball an if langer longer aik oak straught straight Simmer summer Possibly a variant of a song in David Herd’s collection, revised by Burns and communicated along with its air by him to Johnson. The fragmentary song in Herd is:

She looked o’er the castle-wa’, She saw three lords play at the ba’: ‘O the youngest is the flower of a’, But my love is lang o’ growing. ‘O father, gin ye think it fit, We’ll set him to the college yet, And tye a ribbon round his hat, And father, I’ll gang wi’ him!’ (Hecht 145)

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606

There are distant parallels with the traditional ballads Lady Anne and The Cruel Mother. As Kinsley points out, the irregular metre is common in folk-song, but uncharacteristic of Burns (Commentary 1403).

Songs and notes

607

204 Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame Tune: A parcel of rogues in a nation

Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame, Fareweel our ancient glory; Fareweel even to the Scottish name, Sae fam’d in martial story!

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608

Now Sark rins over the Solway sands, 5 An’ Tweed rins to the ocean, To mark where England’s province stands— Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! What force or guile could not subdue, Thro’ many warlike ages, 10 Is wrought now by a coward few, For hireling traitors wages. The English steel we could disdain, Secure in valour’s station; But English gold has been our bane, 15 Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! O would, or I had seen the day That treason thus could sell us, My auld grey head had lien in clay, Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace! 20 But pith and power, till my last hour, I’ll mak this declaration; We’re bought and sold for English gold Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! SMM no. 378 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 100 fareweel farewell rins runs or before lien lain Burns’s powerful version of a song which, in some earlier form, probably dates from the time of the Treaty of Union in 1707. The words express the strong sense of outrage in eighteenth-century Scotland that the nation had been betrayed by the ‘Thirty-one Rogues’, the Scottish Parliamentary Commissioners. The phrase ‘such a parcel of rogues in a nation’ occurs elsewhere in Scottish song tradition of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century; in this instance at least it is wry, dismissive and profoundly sad. Above all, the song conveys a sense of tragically compromised and insulted national pride. The air, which is probably as old as the Union, occurs in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 26.

Songs and notes

609

205 There livèd a carl in Kellyburn braes Tune: Kellyburn braes

There livèd a carl in Kellyburn braes, (Hey and the rue grows bonie wi’ thyme), And he had a wife was the plague o’ his days (And the thyme it is wither’d, and rue is in prime). And he had a wife was the plague o’ his days 5 (And the thyme it is wither’d, and rue is in prime). Ae day as the carl gaed up the lang-glen, (Hey, etc.) He met wi’ the d-v-l, says, how do ye fen? (And, etc.)

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I’ve got a bad wife, Sir, that’s a’ my complaint, (Hey, etc.) For, saving your presence, to her ye’re a saint, 10 (And, etc.) It’s neither your stot nor your staig I shall crave, (Hey, etc.) But gie me your wife, man, for her I must have, (And, etc.) O, welcome most kindly! the blythe carl said; (Hey, etc.) But if ye can match her—ye’re waur than ye’re ca’d, (And, etc.) The d-v-l has got the auld wife on his back, 15 (Hey, etc.) And like a poor pedlar he’s carried his pack, (And, etc.) He’s carried her hame to his ain hallan-door, (Hey, etc.) Syne bade her gae in for a b-ch and a wh-re, (And, etc.) Then straight he makes fifty, the pick o’ his band, (Hey, etc.) Turn out on her guard in the clap of a hand, 20 (And, etc.) The carlin gaed thro’ them like onie wud bear, (Hey, etc.) Whae’er she gat hands on, cam near her nae mair, (And, etc.) A reekit, wee devil looks over the wa’, (Hey, etc.) O help, Master help! or she’ll ruin us a’!

Songs and notes

611

(And, etc.) The d-v-l he swore by the edge o’ his knife, 25 (Hey, etc.) He pitied the man that was ty’d to a wife, (And, etc.) The d-v-l he swore by the kirk and the bell, (Hey, etc.) He was not in wedlock, thank Heaven, but in h—, (And, etc.) Then Satan has travell’d again wi’ his pack, (Hey, etc.) And to her auld husband he’s carried her back, 30 (And, etc.) ***

I hae been a d-v-l the feck o’ my life, (Hey and the rue grows bonie wi’ thyme)’, But ne’er was in h-ll till I met wi’ a wife, (An’ the thyme it is wither’d, and rue is in prime). But ne’er was in h-ll till I met wi’ a wife, 35 (An’ the thyme it is wither’d and rue is in prime). SMM no. 379 (1792) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 101 carl fellow, old man fen cope stot young bullock staig young horse waur worse ca’d called hallan- partition syne then wud enraged, angry gat got reekit smoky wa’ wall the feck most

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612

A comic song about an old man, his formidable wife, and the Devil. The theme of the termagant wife whom the Devil cannot control is an old one in folk tale and song. Burns here adds his own deft humour and neatness of phrase to what may well have been sung or otherwise passed on to him as a traditional song. (What appears to be a version of the traditional song exists in his handwriting (St Louis Burns Club Facsimiles, 96).) The air is a variant of The Lothian Lassie.

Songs and notes

613

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614

206 Ithers seek they kenna what Tune: Jockey fou and Jenny fain

Ithers seek they kenna what, Features, carriage, and a’ that; Gie me loove in her I court, Loove to loove maks a’ the sport.

Songs and notes

615

Let loove sparkle in her e’e, 5 Let her lo’e nae man but me; That’s the tocher gude I prize, There the luver’s treasure lies. SMM no. 381 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 103 loove love tocher dowry Lines 5–8 are Burns’s addition to ‘Jocky fou, Jenny fain’, an anonymous song from Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany (1724) I 187–8, which Johnson reprinted in the Museum. The air is in Craig, Scots Tunes (1730) 25.

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616

207 It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral Tune: The slave’s lament

It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral For the lands of Virginia, -ginia O: Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more, And alas! I am weary, weary, O. Torn from that, etc. All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost, 5 Like the lands of Virginia, -ginia O; There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, And alas! I am weary, weary, O! There streams, etc. The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear, In the lands of Virginia, -ginia O; 10

Songs and notes

617

And I think on friends most dear with the bitter, bitter tear, And alas! I am weary, weary, O! And I think, etc. SMM no. 384 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 105 Ascribed to Burns on the evidence of the Hastie MS; possibly not his work. The inclusion of this song in the Museum shows how powerful and widespread public interest in broadside ballads and songs against slavery had become by the early 1790s. Dick comments, Stenhouse circulated the story that the tune is of African origin. The Seven Dials is more likely to have been its birthplace. It is sentimental but by no means a bad tune, and is as well worth reprinting as the verses it illustrates. (Dick 479)

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208 The smiling Spring comes in rejoicing Tune: Bonie Bell

The smiling Spring comes in rejoicing, And surly Winter grimly flies; Now crystal clear are the falling waters,

Songs and notes

619

And bonie blue are the sunny skies. Fresh o’er the mountains breaks forth the morning, 5 The ev’ning gilds the ocean’s swell; All creatures joy in the sun’s returning, And I rejoice in my bonie Bell. The flowery Spring leads sunny Summer, And yellow Autumn presses near, 10 Then in his turn comes gloomy Winter, Till smiling Spring again appear. Thus seasons dancing, life advancing, Old Time and Nature their changes tell, But never ranging, still unchanging, 15 I adore my bonie Bell. SMM no. 387 (1792), signed B Stenhouse comments, ‘This is another production of Burns, who also communicated the tune to which the words are set in the Museum’ (Stenhouse (1853) 355).

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620

209 Where Cart rins rowin to the sea Tune: The gallant weaver

Where Cart rins rowin to the sea By mony a flower and spreading tree, There lives a lad, the lad for me— He is a gallant Weaver.

Songs and notes

621

O, I had wooers aught or nine, 5 They gied me rings and ribbons fine, And I was fear’d my heart wad tine, And I gied it to the weaver. My daddie sign’d my tocher-band To gie the lad that has the land, 10 But to my heart I’ll add my hand, And give it to the Weaver. While birds rejoice in leafy bowers; While bees delight in opening flowers; While corn grows green in simmer showers, 15 I love my gallant Weaver. SMM no. 389 (1792), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ rins runs rowin rolling aught eight gied gave fear’d afraid tine be lost tocher-band marriage settlement simmer summer The river Cart runs through the Renfrewshire town of Paisley, which built its modern reputation on thread manufacture and weaving. Burns noted, ‘the chorus of this song is old, the rest of it is mine’. At Dick 395, James Dick claims that the air, which occurs in a 1782 collection as ‘Weaver’s March, of Twenty-first of August’, ‘has not the character of a Scottish melody. The New Swedish Dance, in the Musical Pocket-Book (c. 1715) resembles the tune’.

The songs of Robert burns

622

210 Up wi’ the carls of Dysart Tune: Hey ca’ thro’

Up wi’ the carls o’ Dysart And the lads o’ Buckhiven, And the kimmers o’ Largo And the lasses o’ Leven. CHORUS Hey, ca’ thro’, ca’ thro’, 5 For we hae mickle a-do; Hey, ca’ thro’, ca’ thro’, For we hae mickle a-do!

Songs and notes

623

We hae tales to tell, And we hae sangs to sing; 10 We hae pennies to spend, And we hae pints to bring. Hey ca’ thro’, etc. We’ll live a’ our days, And them that comes behin’, Let them do the like, 15 And spend the gear they win. Hey ca’ thro’, etc. SMM no. 392 (1792) carls fellows kimmers wenches ca’ thro’ work away, get work done sangs songs gear money, possessions According to William Stenhouse, This lively old air, with its humorous verses, beginning ‘Up wi’ the Carles of Dysart’, were communicated by Burns to the Editor of the Museum. (Stenhouse (1853) 357) Burns was in Fife at the end of his Highland tour in 1787, and possibly picked up part of the song then.

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624

211 O can ye labor lea, young man? Tune: O can ye labour lea

CHORUS O can ye labor lea, young man, O, can ye labor lea? Gae back the gate ye came again, Ye’se never scorn me. I fee’d a man at Martinmas, 5 Wi’ airle pennies three: But a’ the faut I had to him, He couldna labor lea. O can ye, etc.

Songs and notes

625

O clappin’s gude in Febarwar, An kissin’s sweet in May; 10 But what signifies a young man’s love, An’t dinna last for ay. O can ye, etc. O kissin is the key o’ luve, An clappin is the lock, An makin-of’s the best thing, 15 That e’er a young Thing got. O can ye, etc. SMM no. 394 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 107 labor lea cultivate untilled ground gate way ye’se you shall fee’d hired airle-pennies earnest monies faute fault clappin fondling Febarwar February an’t if it dinna does not makin-of petting ‘O can ye labor lea’ is related to a bawdy ‘vocational’ song in the Merry Muses of Caledonia, which has the same first stanza and chorus; and possibly also to a traditional Nithsdale song. R.H. Cromek states ‘This song has long been known among the inhabitants of Nithsdale and Galloway, where it is a great favourite’ (Select Scotish Songs (1810) II 40). Burns quotes lines 13–16 in a letter to James Dalrymple in 1787 as ‘An auld Sang o’ my Mither’s’ (Letter 84, Letters I 95). George Thomson made the air famous by setting ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to it.

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626

212 The bairns gat out wi’ an unco shout Tune: The deuks dang o’er my daddie

The bairns gat out wi’ an unco shout: The deuks dang o’er my daddie, O! The fien-ma-care, quo’ the feirrie auld wife,

Songs and notes

627

He was but a paidlin body, O! He paidles out, and he paidles in, 5 An’ he paidles late and early, O! This seven lang years I hae lien by his side, An’ he is but a fusionless carlie, O. O had your tongue, my feirie auld wife, O had your tongue, now Nansie, O: 10 I’ve seen the day, and sae hae ye, Ye wad na been sae donsie, O. I’ve seen the day ye butter’d my brose, And cuddled me late and early, O; But downa do’s come o’er me now, 15 And, Oh, I find it sairly, O! SMM no. 396 (1792), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 108 bairns children gat got unco strange deuks dang o’er the duck has knocked over fien-ma-care who cares? quo’ said feirrie sturdy paidlin fumbling lit. ‘paddling’ body person lien lain fusionless pithless carlie old man had hold donsie ill-tempered brose oatmeal mixture downa do’s cannot do’s, impotence sairly grievously An original rehandling by Burns of a traditional comic song about a hen-pecked old man and his more active wife:

The nine pint bicker’s fa’n aff the bink, And broken the ten-pint cannie, O, The wife and her kimmers sat down to drink,

The songs of Robert burns

628

But ne’er a drap gae the guidmannie, O; The bairns they a’ set up a shout, The deuks dang o’er my daddie, O; ‘There’s nae muckle matter’ quo’ the guidwife, ‘He’s ay been a daidlin bodie, O.’ (as quoted in Dick 427) Burns has created a characteristically funny exchange of insults between husband and wife, developing the hint about impotence in the traditional song, and matching its vernacular Scots. The tune, originally printed in England in 1670, is included in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I.

Songs and notes

629

213 As I went out ae May morning Tune: As I went out, etc.

Stenhouse took this to be a traditional song, revised by Burns: The words and music of this old ballad were communicated by Burns, in the poet’s own hand-writing. Some of the verses seem to have been retouched by our bard; but it would have been better had he altered a little more of it. (Stenhouse 359) The song seems to be distantly related to three stanzas in David Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776) ending

I hae nae houses, I hae nae land, I hae nae gowd or fee, Sir; I am o’er low to be your bryde Your lown I’ll never be, Sir. Burns seems to have collected the air for Johnson.

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630

As I went out ae May morning, A May morning it chanc’d to be; There I was aware of a weel-far’d maid, Cam linkin’ o’er the lea to me. O but she was a weel-far’d maid, 5 The boniest lass that’s under the sun; I spier’d gin she could fancy me, But her answer was, I am too young. To be your bride I am too too young, To be your loun wad shame my kin, 10 So therefore pray young man begone, For you never, never shall my favor win. But amang yon birks and hawthorns green, Where roses blaw and woodbines hing, O there I learn’d my bonie lass 15 That she was not a single hour too young. The lassie blush’d, the lassie sigh’d, And the tear stood twinklin in her e’e; O kind Sir, since ye hae done me this wrang, It’s pray when will ye marry me? 20 It’s of that day tak ye nae heed, For that’s ae day ye ne’er shall see; For ought that pass’d between us twa, Ye had your share as weel as me. She wrang her hands, she tore her hair, 25 She cried out most bitterlie, O what will I say to my mammie, When I gae hame wi’ my big bellie! O as ye maut, so maun ye brew, And as ye brew, so maun ye tun; 30 But come to my arms, my ae bonie lass,

Songs and notes

631

For ye never shall rue what ye now hae done! SMM no. 397 (1792); Hastie MS, f. 109 weelfar’d well-favoured linkin tripping spier’d asked gin if loun wanton birks birches blaw blow learn’d taught wrang wrong maut malt tun put into a tun, cask

The songs of Robert burns

632

214 She’s fair and fause that causes my smart Tune: The lads of Leith

She’s fair and fause that causes my smart; I lo’ed her meikle and lang;

Songs and notes

633

She’s broken her vow, she’s broken my heart, And I may e’en gae hang. A coof cam in wi’ routh o’ gear, 5 And I hae tint my dearest dear; But woman is but warld’s gear, Sae let the bonie lass gang! Whae’er ye be that woman love, To this be never blind, 10 Nae ferlie ‘tis tho’ fickle she prove, A woman has’t by kind: O woman, lovely woman fair! An angel form’s faun to thy share, ’Twad been o’er meikle to gien thee mair, 15 I mean an angel mind. SMM no. 398 (1792), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 110 fause false coof fool routh o’ gear plenty of money, property tint lost warld world whae’er whoever nae ferlie no wonder faun fallen ‘twad it would have Possibly written in 1789 when Anne Stewart, who had been engaged to Burns’s lawyer friend Alexander Cunningham, jilted him in favour of someone with more money. Kinsley observes that while the first eight lines of the song follow the Scots tradition, the ‘rhetorical structure and wit of ll. 9–16 are reminiscent of English lyric’. He therefore concludes that Burns may have Scotticized an English stanza, but does not identify any English source (Commentary 1407). The air The lads of Leith is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV.

The songs of Robert burns

634

215 The deil cam fiddlin thro’ the town Tune: The Hemp-dresser

The deil cam fiddlin thro’ the town, And danc’d awa wi’ th’ Exciseman, And ilka wife cries, Auld Mahoun, I wish you luck o’ the prize, man!

Songs and notes

635

CHORUS The deil’s awa, the deil’s awa, 5 The deil’s awa wi’ th’ Exciseman! He’s danc’d awa, he’s danc’d awa, He’s danc’d awa wi’ th’ Exciseman! We’ll mak our maut and we’ll brew our drink, We’ll laugh, sing, and rejoice, man; 10 And mony braw thanks to the meikle black deil, That danc’d awa wi’ th’ Exciseman. The deil’s awa, etc. There’s threesome reels, there’s foursome reels, There’s hornpipes and strathspeys, man, But the ae best dance e’er cam to the Land 15 Was, the deil’s awa wi’ th’ Exciseman. The deil’s awa, etc. SMM no. 399 (1792) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ deil devil Mahoun devil maut malt Burns the exciseman, who as a young poet had poured scorn on the role of the Excise in curbing whisky stills, could still laugh at himself and his necessarily unpopular line of work. According to Lockhart, the occasion for his writing this song occurred when he was watching a stranded smuggling vessel on the Solway on 28 February 1792, and waiting for his colleague Lewars to bring help. As the period of waiting dragged on, a companion suggested that Burns should ‘indite a song upon the sluggard’: Burns said nothing; but after taking a few strides by himself among the reeds and shingle, rejoined his party, and chanted to them the well-known ditty, ‘The Deil’s awa’ wi’ th’ Exciseman’. There is manuscript proof that Burns had this song in mind in writing to John Leven in the same year, Mr Mitchell mentioned to you a ballad, which I composed, and sung at one of his Excise Court dinners: here it is…. If you honor my ballad by making it one of your charming bon vivant effusions, it will secure it undoubted celebrity. (Letter 500, Letters II 139)

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In this letter, the tune is entitled Madam Cassey, It had been printed in The Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 21.

216 Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary? Tune: Ewe-bughts Marion

Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, And leave auld Scotia’s shore?

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Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, Across th’ Atlantic roar? O, sweet grows the lime and the orange, 5 And the apple on the pine; But a’ the charms o’ the Indies Can never equal thine. I hae sworn by the Heavens to my Mary, I hae sworn by the Heavens to be true; 10 And sae may the Heavens forget me, When I forget my vow! O plight me your faith, my Mary, And plight me your lily-white hand; O plight me your faith, my Mary, 15 Before I leave Scotia’s strand. We hae plighted our troth, my Mary, In mutual affection to join, And curst be the cause that shall part us, The hour, and the moment o’ time! 20 Currie (1800) A song written in the summer of 1787 when Burns was wooing Mary Campbell, and planning to emigrate to the West Indies. He sent a revised copy of it to George Thomson in October 1792 as a ‘farewell of a dear girl’, and explained, You must know, that all my earlier love-songs were the breathings of ardent Passion; and tho’ it might have been easy in aftertimes to have given them a polish, yet that polish… would have defaced the legend of my heart, which was so faithfully inscribed on them—Their uncouth simplicity was, as they say of wines, their Race. (Letter 511, Letters II 154–5) The air was well known in the eighteenth century as that of a pastoral song, Will ye go to the Ewbughts, Marion. It had appeared in the Perth Musical Miscellany (1786) 33, and Aird’s Airs (1788) III no. 476. Burns commented, I am not sure if this old and charming air be of the South, as is commonly said, or of the North of Scotland. There is a song apparently as ancient as

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Ewe-bughts Marion, which sings to the same tune, and is evidently of the North. It begins thus:—The lord o’ Gordon had three dochters… (Notes 21)

Songs and notes

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217 She is a winsome wee thing Tune: My wife’s a wanton wee thing

She is a winsome wee thing, She is a handsome wee thing, She is a lo’esome wee thing, This sweet wee wife o’ mine. I never saw a fairer, 5 I never lo’ed a dearer;

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And neist my heart I’ll wear her, For fear my jewel tine. She is a winsome wee thing, She is a handsome wee thing, 10 She is a lo’esome wee thing, This dear wee wife o’ mine. The warld’s wrack we share o’t, The warstle and the care o’t; Wi’ her I’ll blythely bear it, 15 And think my lot divine. Currie (1800) lo’esome lovable neist nexi tine be lost warld’s wrack world’s waste warstle struggle Burns wrote to Thomson on 8 November 1792, There is a peculiar rhythmus in many of our airs, and a necessity of adapting syllables to the emphasis, or what I would call, the feature notes, of the tune, that cramps the Poet, and lays him under almost insuperable difficulties.—For instance, in the air, My wife’s a wanton wee thing, if a few lines, smooth and pretty, can be adapted to it, it is all you can expect.—The following I made extempore to it; and though, on farther study I might give you something more profound, yet it might not suit the light-horse gallop of the air so well as this random clink. (Letter 514, Letters II 157) Thomson approved of the first eight lines, but tinkered with the rest of the song. Eventually he published the song, heavily modified, in Select Melodies (1824) VI no. 44. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI 12. For Burns’s earlier attempt to match words to the air, see no. 129 ‘My wife’s a wanton wee thing’.

218 Ye banks and braes and streams around

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Tune: Lady Catherine Ogie

Burns wrote to Thomson on 14 November 1792, I agree with you that the song, K.Ogie, is very poor stuff, and unworthy, altogether unworthy, of so beautiful an air.—I tried to mend it; but the awkward sound, ‘Ogie’, recurring so often in the rhyme, spoils every attempt at introducing Sentiment into the Piece. The foregoing Song pleases myself; I think it is in my happiest manner: you will see at first glance that it suits the air. The Subject of the Song is one of the most interesting passages of my youthful days; & I own that I would be much flattered to see the verses set to an Air which would insure celebrity.— Perhaps, after all, ‘tis the still glowing prejudice of my heart, that throws a borrowed lustre over the merits of the Composition. (Letter 518, Letters II 159–60) This is one of a number of songs inspired by Burns’s intense love for Mary Campbell in the summer of 1786. Compare no. 41 ‘Nae gentle dames tho’ ne’er sae fair’ and no. 216 ‘Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary’. Thomson liked the song, in which he recognized ‘the genuine spirit of poetry’, but proposed changes. ‘I cannot alter it’, Burns wrote to

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him, ‘without injuring the poetry in proportion as I mended the perspicuity; so, if you please, we will let it stand as it is’ (Letter 535, ibid., 182). The seventeenth-century English air is included in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 22.

Ye banks and braes and streams around The castle o’ Montgomery, Green be your woods and fair your flowers, Your waters never drumlie: There Simmer first unfald her robes, 5 And there the langest tarry; For there I took the last fareweel O’ my sweet Highland Mary. How sweetly bloom’d the gay, green birk, How rich the hawthorn’s blossom; 10 As underneath their fragrant shade, I clasp’d her to my bosom! The golden Hours, on angel wings, Flew o’er me and my Dearie; For dear to me as light and life 15 Was my sweet Highland Mary! Wi’ mony a vow, and lock’d embrace, Our parting was fu’ tender; And pledging aft to meet again, We tore oursels asunder: 20 But Oh, fell Death’s untimely frost, That nipt my Flower sae early! Now green’s the sod, and cauld’s the clay, That wraps my Highland Mary! O pale, pale now, those rosy lips 25 I aft hae kiss’d sae fondly! And clos’d for ay, the sparkling glance, That dwalt on me sae kindly! And mouldering now in silent dust, That heart that lo’ed me dearly! 30 But still within my bosom’s core Shall live my Highland Mary.

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SC no. 83 (1799) drumlie muddy Simmer summer unfald unfold fareweel farewell birk birch Dearie sweetheart fu’ very aft often dwalt dwelt

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219 Here’s a health to them that’s awa Tune: Here’s a health to them that’s awa

Founded on a Jacobite ballad, and making use of its refrain, but written in 1792 when Burns was in a Revolutionary frame of mind. He sent the song to William Johnston, the editor of the Edinburgh Gazeteer which he had started on ‘progressive’ principles. At this period Burns was suspected of holding subversive political beliefs. It was alleged that he had proposed a toast at a public meeting—‘Here’s the last verse of the last chapter of the last Book of Kings’. The Whig colours were buff and blue. Charlie (1.11) is Charles James Fox, leader of the Whig opposition. ‘Tammie’ (1.19) is Thomas Erskine, who defended Tom Paine and other radicals in sedition trials. Maitland and Wycombe (1.27) dared to protest at the royal proclamation against seditious writings. Chieftain McLeod (1.35) is Colonel Norman McLeod of McLeod (1754–1801), MP for Inverness.

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The air, ‘long admired’ by Burns (Letter 704), is related to no. 193, Kenmure’s on and awa. Source of music: SMM no. 412.

Here’s a health to them that’s awa, Here’s a health to them that’s awa! And wha winna wish guid luck to our cause, May never guid luck be their fa’! It’s guid to be merry and wise, 5 It’s guid to be honest and true, It’s guid to support Caledonia’s cause, And bide by the buff and the blue. Here’s a health to them that’s awa, Here’s a health to them that’s awa; 10 Here’s a health to Charlie, the chief o’ the clan, Altho’ that his band be sma’. May Liberty meet wi’ success! May Prudence protect her frae evil! May Tyrants and Tyranny tine i’ the mist, 15 And wander their way to the devil! Here’s a health to them that’s awa, Here’s a health to them that’s awa; Here’s a health to Tammie, the Norland laddie, That lives at the lug o’ the law! 20 Here’s freedom to him that wad read, Here’s freedom to him that wad write! There’s nane ever fear’d that the Truth should be heard, But they whom the Truth wad indite. Here’s a health to them that’s awa, 25 And here’s to them that’s awa! Here’s to Maitland and Wycombe! Let wha doe na like ‘em Be built in a hole in the wa’! Here’s timmer that’s red at the heart, Here’s fruit that is sound at the core; 30 And may he that wad turn the buff and blue coat Be turn’d to the back o’ the door!

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Here’s a health to them that’s awa, Here’s a health to them that’s awa; Here’s Chieftain McLeod, a chieftan worth gowd, 35 Tho’ bred amang mountains o’ snaw! Here’s friends on baith sides o’ the Forth, And friends on baith sides o’ the Tweed; And wha wad betray old Albion’s right, May they never eat of her bread! 40 Edinburgh Gazeteer (1792) wha winna who will not fa’ fortune bide remain sma’ small tine get lost Norland northern lug ear wa’ wall timmer wood gowd gold snaw snow

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220 When o’er the hill the e’ening star Tune: My ain kind dearie, O

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When o’er the hill the e’ening star Tells bughtin time is near, my jo, And owsen frae the furrow’d field Return sae dowf and weary, O, Down by the burn, where scented birks 5 Wi’ dew are hangin clear, my jo, I’ll meet thee on the lea-rig, My ain kind dearie, O. In mirkest glen, at midnight hour, I’d rove and ne’er be eerie O, 10 If thro’ that glen I gaed to thee, My ain kind dearie O: Altho’ the night were ne’er sae wet, And I were ne’er sae weary O, I’d meet thee on the lea-rig, 15 My ain kind dearie, O. The hunter lo’es the morning sun, To rouse the mountain deer, my jo, At noon the fisher seeks the glen, Adown the burn to steer, my jo; 20 Gie me the hour o’ gloamin grey, It maks my heart sae cheery, O, To meet thee on the lea-rig My ain kind dearie, O. Currie (1800) bughtin-time time in the evening when ewes are milked owsen oxen, cattle dowf listless birks birches jo sweetheart lea-rig ridge of unploughed grass between arable ridges dearie sweetheart mirkest darkest irie apprehensive burn stream gloamin twilight

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Burns knew a song called ‘The Lea-rig’, which he believed to have been written by Robert Fergusson ‘in one of his merry humours’. He explained, The old words began thus:—

I’ll rowe thee o’er the lea-rig, My ain kind dearie, O, I’ll rowe o’er the lea-rig, My ain kind dearie, O, Altho’ the night were ne’er sae wat, And I were ne’er sae weary, O, I’ll rowe thee o’er the lea-rig, My ain kind dearie, O. (Notes 17–18) He wrote his own song on the theme of evening for George Thomson’s SC in October 1792, working the ‘old words’ into his second stanza. When Thomson objected that ‘The Lea-rig’ was too short—‘a pleasure lost, ere it is well possessed’ (Currie (1800) IV 20)— Burns added the third stanza in December of the same year. (Letters 511 and 522, Letters II) Source of music: SMM no. 49.

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221 There’s auld Rob Morris that wons in yon glen Tune: Auld Rob Morris

There’s auld Rob Morris that wons in yon glen, He’s the king o’ gude fellows and wale of auld men; He has gowd in his coffers, he has owsen and kine, And ae bonie lassie, his dawtie and mine.

Songs and notes

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She’s fresh as the morning, the fairest in May; 5 She’s sweet as the e’enin amang the new hay; As blythe and as artless as the lambs on the lea, And dear to my heart as the light to my e’e. But oh, she’s an Heiress, auld Robin’s a laird; And my daddie has nocht but a cot-house and yard: 10 A wooer like me maunna hope to come speed; The wounds I must hide that will soon be my dead. The day comes to me, but delight brings me nane; The night comes to me, but my rest it is gane: I wander my lane like a night-troubled ghaist, 15 And I sigh as my heart it wad burst in my breast. O had she but been of a laigher degree, I then might have hop’d she wad smil’d upon me! O, how past descriving had then been my bliss, As now my distraction no words can express! 20 SC no. 17 (1793) wons lives gude good wale pick gowd gold owsen oxen kine cattle dawtie pet e’enin evening lea pasture laird landowner cot-house cottage yard garden maunna must not dead death my lane alone ghaist ghost laigher lower descriving describing

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Burns’s point of departure in writing this song about the opposition between love and wealth was a song in the Tea-Table Miscellany about youth versus wealthy age: MITHER

Auld Rob Morris that wins in yon glen, He’s the king of good fellows, and wale of auld men, He’s fourscore of black sheep, and fourscore too, Auld Rob Morris is the man ye maun loo. DOUGHTER

Had your tongue, mither, and let that abee, For his eild and my eild can never agree: They’ll never agree, and that will be seen; For he is fourscore, and I’m but fifteen. George Thomson evidently suggested a song on the basis of the traditional one, because Burns wrote to him in November 1792: I have partly taken your idea of ‘Auld Rob Morris’.—I have adopted the two first verses, and am going on with the Song on a new plan, which promises pretty well.—I take up one or another just as the Bee of the moment buzzes in my bonnet-lug. (Letter 518, Letters II 160) Later, he demurred at Thomson’s attempt to modify his diction in the song: There is a naïveté, a pastoral simplicity, in a slight intermixture of Scots words and phraseology, which is more in unison (at least to my taste, and I will add, to every genuine Caledonian taste,) with the simple pathos, or rustic sprightliness, of our native music, than any English verse whatever.—For instance, in my Auld Rob Morris, you propose instead of the word, ‘descriving’, to substitute the phrase ‘all telling’, which would spoil the rusticity, the pastoral, of the stanza. (Letter 535, ibid., 181) The seventeenth-century air is in Craig’s Scots Tunes (1730) 45; Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 30 and other collections. Source of music: SMM no. 192.

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222 Duncan Gray cam here to woo Tune: Duncan Gray

Duncan Gray cam here to woo, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t, On blythe Yule night when we were fu’, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Maggie coost her head fu’ high, 5 Look’d asklent and unco skiegh, Gart poor Duncan stand abiegh; Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Duncan fleech’d, and Duncan pray’d; Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. 10 Meg was deaf as Ailsa craig,

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Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Duncan sigh’d baith out and in, Grat his een baith bleer’t an’ blin’, Spak o’ lowpin o’er a linn; 15 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Time and Chance are but a tide, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Slighted love is sair to bide, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. 20 Shall I, like a fool, quoth he, For a haughty hizzie die? She may gae to—France for me! Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. How it comes let Doctors tell, 25 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Meg grew sick as he grew heal, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Something in her bosom wrings, For relief a sigh she brings; 30 And O her een, they spak sic things! Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Duncan was a lad o’ grace, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Maggie’s was a piteous case, 35 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. Duncan could na be her death, Swelling Pity smoor’d his Wrath; Now they’re crouse and canty baith, Ha, ha, the wooing o’t. 40 SC no. 48 (1798) Yule Christmas fu’ drunk coost tossed fu’ very asklent askance

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unco skiegh very ‘mettlesome, fiery, proud’ (Burns) gart caused abiegh ‘at a shy distance’ (Burns) fleech’d wheedled craig crag baith both grat wept bleer’t bleary blin’ blind spak spoke lowpin leaping linn waterfall sair hard bide endure hizzie hussy heal well smoor’d smothered crouse merry canty cheerful Burns sent this song to Thomson on 4 December 1792 with the comment, ‘Duncan Gray is that kind of light-horse gallop of an air, which precludes sentiment.—The ludicrous is its ruling feature’ (Letter 523, Letters II 163–4). As in an earlier set he had written for the air (SMM II (1788) no. 160), his point of departure was part of a traditional song in David Herd’s MSS:

Duncan he came here to woo On a day when we were fou, And Meg she swore that she wou’d spew, If he gaed her the girdin o’t. (Hecht 208) Burns noted with regard to the tune, ‘Dr Blacklock informed me that he had often heard the tradition that this air was composed by a carman in Glasgow’ (Notes 30). It had appeared in various collections, including the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751) III no. 8. Source of music: SMM no. 160.

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223 When Princes and Prelates and het-headed zealots Tune: The Campbells are comin

Burns sent a copy of this song to Graham of Fintry, his patron in the Excise service, in January 1793, with a long letter in which he defended himself against the charge of holding revolutionary opinions:

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As to France, I was her enthusiastic votary in the beginning of the business.—When she came to shew her old avidity for conquest… I altered my sentiments.—A tippling Ballad which I made on the Prince of Brunswick’s breaking up his camp, and sung one convivial evening, I shall…send you, sealed up, as it is not every body’s reading.—This last is not worth your perusal; but lest Mrs FAME should, as she has already done, use, & even abuse, her old priviledge of lying, you shall be the master of every thing, le pour et le contre, of my political writings & conduct. (Letter 530, Letters II 174–5) ‘Burns celebrates the levelling power and harmlessness—of copulation’ (Kinsley, Commentary, p. 1416). Cf. no. 359 ‘While Prose-work and rhymes’. For the air, see no. 154 ‘The Campbells are comin, Oho! Oho!’.

When Princes and Prelates and het-headed zealots All Europe hae set in a lowe, The poor man lies down, nor envies a crown, And comforts himsel with a mowe.— CHORUS And why shouldna poor folk mowe, mowe, mowe, 5 And why shouldna poor folk mowe: The great folk hae siller, and houses and lands, Poor bodies hae naething but mowe.— When Br-nsw-ck’s great Prince cam a cruising to Fr-nce Republican billies to cowe, 10 Bauld Br-nsw-ck’s great Prince wad hae shawn better sense, At hame with his Princess to mowe.— And why shouldna, etc. Out over the Rhine proud Pr-ss-a wad shine, To spend his best blood he did vow; But Frederic had better ne’er forded the water, 15 But spent as he docht in a mowe.— And why shouldna, etc. By sea and by shore! the Emp-r-r swore, In Paris he’d kick up a row; But Paris sae ready just leugh at the laddie And bade him gae tak him a mowe.—20

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And why shouldna, etc. Auld Kate laid her claws on poor Stanislaus, And Poland has bent like a bow: May the deil in her a-ram a huge pr-ck o’ brass! And damn her in h-ll with a mowe! And why shouldna, etc. But truce with commotions and new-fangled notions, 25 A bumper I trust you’ll allow: Here’s George our gude king and Charlotte his queen, And lang may they tak a gude mowe! And why shouldna, etc. Merry Muses of Caledonia het- hotlowe flame mowe intercourse, copulate shouldna should not siller money bodies people billies fellows cowe terrify bauld bold shawn shown hame home docht was able leugh laugh

Songs and notes

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224 Here awa, there awa, wandering, Willie Tune: Here awa, there awa

Here awa, there awa, wandering, Willie, Here awa, there awa, haud awa hame; Come to my bosom, my ae only dearie, And tell me thou bring’st me my Willie the same. Loud tho’ the winter blew cauld on our parting, 5 ’Twas na the blast brought the tear in my e’e: Welcome now Simmer, and welcome my Willie; The Simmer to Nature, my Willie to me. Rest, ye wild storms, in the cave o’ your slumbers, How your dread howling a lover alarms! 10

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Wauken, ye breezes! row gently, ye billows! And waft my dear Laddie ance mair to my arms. But oh, if he’s faithless, and minds na his Nanie, Flow still between us, thou wide roaring main: May I never see it, may I never trow it, 15 But, dying, believe that my Willie’s my ain! SC no. 2 (1793) haud awa’ come away hame home ae only one and only Simmer summer wauken waken minds na does not remember trow believe An original song for George Thomson’s Select Collection, modelled on a song in Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II 40 and in the SMM I no. 57 (1787) (Letter 552A, Letters II 194). The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 1.

Songs and notes

661

225 Braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes Tune: The brave lads of Galla Water

Braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes, They rove amang the blooming heather; But Yarrow braes, nor Ettrick shaws Can match the lads o’ Galla Water. But there is ane, a secret ane, 5 Aboon them a’ I loe him better; And I’ll be his, and he’ll be mine, The bonie lad o’ Galla Water. Altho’ his daddie was nae laird, And tho’ I hae na meikle tocher, 10 Yet rich in kindest, truest love, We’ll tent our flocks by Galla Water. It ne’er was wealth, it ne’er was wealth, That coft contentment, peace, or pleasure;

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The bands and bliss o’ mutual love, 15 O that’s the chiefest warld’s treasure! SC no. 11 (1793) shaws woods nae laird no landowner meikle tocher much dowry tent guard coft bought Modelled on a traditional song published in Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II no. 202 and in SMM II no. 125 (1788). Burns sent it to Thomson early in January 1793. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1756) VIII no. 28 and SMM no. 125 (1788).

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226 O poortith cauld, and restless love Tune: Cauld kail

Burns sent this song—one of many inspired by his feelings for Jean Lorimer—to George Thomson early in January 1793. Thomson wanted changes, but Burns commented, ‘I cannot make it better.—The stuff won’t bear mending; yet for private reasons I should like to see it in print’. After further work on the text, he wrote, ‘that unlucky song, “O poortith cauld,” &c. must stand as it stands—I won’t put my hand to it again’ (Letter 577, Letters II 176, 230). The air Cauld kail had traditionally been associated with fast-moving humorous songs, but in this instance Burns treats it as a slow measure. Source of music: SMM no. 162.

O poortith cauld, and restless love,

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Ye wrack my peace between ye; Yet poortith a’ I could forgive An ‘twere na for my Jeanie. CHORUS O why should fate sic pleasure have, 5 Life’s dearest bands untwining? O why sae sweet a flower as love, Depend on Fortune’s shining? This warld’s wealth when I think on, Its pride, and a’ the lave o’t; 10 My curse on silly coward man, That he should be the slave o’t. O why, etc. Her een sae bonie blue betray, How she repays my passion; But Prudence is her o’erword ay, 15 She talks o’ rank and fashion. O why, etc. O wha can prudence think upon, And sic a lassie by him: O wha can prudence think upon, And sae in love as I am? 20 O why, etc. How blest the wild-wood Indian’s fate, He wooes his simple Dearie: The silly bogles, Wealth and State, Did never make them eerie. O why, etc. SC no. (1798) poortith poverty wrack wreck warld world lave rest

Songs and notes

bogles spectres eerie gloomy

665

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227 O, mirk, mirk is this midnight hour Tune: Lord Gregory

O, mirk, mirk is this midnight hour, And loud the tempest’s roar; A waefu’ wanderer seeks thy tower—

Songs and notes

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Lord Gregory, ope thy door! An exile frae her father’s ha’, 5 And a’ for sake o’ thee; At least some pity on me shaw, If love it may na be. Lord Gregory, mind’st thou not the grove, By bonie Irwine-side, 10 Where first I own’d that virgin-love I lang, lang had denied. How often didst thou pledge and vow, Thou wad for ay be mine; And my fond heart, itsel sae true, 15 It ne’er mistrusted thine. Hard is thy heart, Lord Gregory, And flinty is thy breast: Thou dart of Heaven that flashest by, O wilt thou give me rest! 20 Ye mustering thunders from above Your willing victim see! But spare, and pardon my fause love His wrangs to Heaven and me! SC no. 38 (1798) mirk dark waefu’ woeful ha’ hall fause false wrangs wrongs *** George Thomson invited the English poet ‘Peter Pindar’, John Wolcot (1738–1810), to contribute English songs to his Select Collection. Wolcot’s first offering was Lord Gregory:

Ah ope, Lord Gregory, thy door,

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A midnight wanderer sighs, Hard rush the rains, the tempests roar, And light’nings cleave the skies. Who comes with woe at this drear night— A pilgrim of the gloom? If she whose love did once delight, My cot shall yield her room. Alas! thou heard’st a pilgrim mourn, That once was priz’d by thee: Think of the ring by yonder burn Thou gav’st to love and me. But should’st thou not poor Marian know, I’ll turn my feet and part; And think the storms that round me blow, Far kinder than thy heart. Politely congratulating Thomson on acquiring ‘Peter Pindar’ as a contributor, Burns sent a ‘set of Stanzas, on the same subject’. ‘My Song’, he tactfully explained, ‘though much inferiour in poetic merit, has I think more of the ballad simplicity in it’ (Letter 535, Letters II 181). When Burns and his friend John Syme visited Lord Selkirk’s family in July 1793 while touring Galloway, the poet was asked to recite Lord Gregory. According to Syme, Such was the effect, that a dead silence ensued. It was such a silence as a mind of feeling naturally preserves…. The fastidious critic may perhaps say some of the sentiments and imagery are of too elevated a kind for such a style of composition…but this is a cold-blooded objection, which will be said rather than felt. (Currie (1800) I 205–6) Stenhouse describes the air, which was first published in SMM no. 5 (1787), as ‘a very ancient Gallowegian melody’ (Stenhouse (1853) 3).

Songs and notes

669

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228 You’re welcome to Despots, Dumourier Tune: Aileen a roon

You’re welcome to Despots, Dumourier; You’re welcome to Despots, Dumourier.— How does Dampière do? Aye, and Bournonville too? Why did they not come along with you, Dumourier? 5 I will fight France with you, Dumourier,— I will fight France with you, Dumourier. I will fight France with you, I will take my chance with you; By my soul I’ll dance a dance with you, Dumourier. 10 Then let us fight about, Dumourier; Then let us fight about, Dumourier; Then let us fight about,

Songs and notes

671

‘Till freedom’s spark is out, Then we’ll be d-mned no doubt—Dumourier. 15 Cromek, Reliques (1808) A parody of the traditional song Robin Adair

You’re welcome to Paxton, Robin Adair; You’re welcome to Paxton, Robin Adair.— How does Johnny Mackerell do? Aye, and Luke Gardener too? Why did they not come along with you, Robin Adair? Burns wrote it shortly after the French Jacobin General Charles François Dumouriez (1739–1823), who had been defeated at the battle of Neerwinden in 1793 and disgraced as a result, defected to the Austrians.

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229 O, open the door some pity to shew Tune: Open the door softly

O, open the door some pity to shew, If love it may na be, O! Tho’ thou hast been false, I’ll ever prove true— O, open the door to me, O! Cauld is the blast upon my pale cheek, 5 But caulder thy love for me, O! The frost that freezes the life at my heart, Is nought to my pains frae thee, O! The wan moon sets behind the white wave, And time is setting with me, O! 10 False friends, false love, farewell! for mair I’ll ne’er trouble them, nor thee, O! She has open’d the door, she has open’d it wide,

Songs and notes

673

She sees his pale corse on the plain, O! My true love! she cried, and sank down by his side, 15 Never to rise again, O!. SC no. 21 (1793) Burns’s revision of a song included in Corri’s Scots Songs (1783) II 30:

It’s open the door, some pity to shew, It’s open the door to me, oh! Tho’ you have been false, I’ll always prove true, So open the door to me, oh! Cold is the blast upon my pale cheek, But colder your love unto me, oh! Tho’ you have, etc. She’s open’d the door, she’s open’d it wide, She sees his pale corpse on the ground, oh! Tho’ you have, etc. My true love, she cry’d, then fell down by his side, Never, never to shut again, oh! Tho’ you have, etc. As Kinsley notes, ‘Burns scotticizes the diction of the song in Corri; he runs the third and fourth stanzas together, expands the second stanza from another traditional song, and in his interpolation in ll. 9–12 lifts the piece to a higher poetic level (Commentary 1426)’. The second stanza expands stanza four of Waly, waly, gin Love be bony, a song collected by David Herd:

’Tis not the frost that freezes fell, Nor blawing snaw’s inclemencie; ’Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry, But my love’s heart grown cauld to me. The Irish air Open the door softly is in Bunting’s Irish Melodies (1796).

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230 True-hearted was he, the sad swain o’ the Yarrow Tune: Bonie Dundee

Songs and notes

675

True-hearted was he, the sad swain o’ the Yarrow, And fair are the maids on the banks o’ the Ayr; But by the sweet side o’ the Nith’s winding river, Are lovers as faithful, and maidens as fair: To equal young Jessie, seek Scotia all over; 5 To equal young Jessie, you seek it in vain: Grace, Beauty and Elegance fetter her lover, And maidenly modesty fixes the chain. Fresh is the rose in the gay, dewy morning, And sweet is the lily at evening close; 10 But in the fair presence o’ lovely, young Jessie, Unseen is the lily, unheeded the rose. Love sits in her smile, a wizard ensnaring; Enthron’d in her een he delivers his law: And still to her charms she alone is a stranger, 15 Her modest demeanor’s the jewèl of a’. SC no. 46 (1798) A song complimenting Jessie, daughter of David Staig, who was provost of Dumfries. Burns sent this song and no. 229 to George Thomson in April 1793, with the explanation, These verses suit the tune exactly, as it is in the Museum. There is a syllable wanting at the beginning of [1.9], but I suppose it will make little odds.—There is so little of the Scots language in the composition that the mere English Singer will find no difficulty in the Song. (Letter 554, Letters II 195) The air is Bonie Dundee (cf. no. 50).

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231 Farewell, thou stream that winding flows Tune: Alace yat I came owr the moor

Farewell, thou stream that winding flows Around Eliza’s dwelling! O mem’ry, spare the cruèl throes Within my bosom swelling: Condemn’d to drag a hopeless chain 5 And yet in secret languish, To feel a fire in every vein, Nor dare disclose my anguish!

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677

Love’s veriest wretch, unseen, unknown I fain my griefs would cover; 10 The bursting sigh, th’ unweeting groan, Betray the hapless lover: I know thou doom’st me to despair, Nor wilt, nor canst relieve me; But, Oh Eliza, hear one prayer, 15 For pity’s sake forgive me! The music of thy voice I heard, Nor wist while it enslav’d me; I saw thine eyes, yet nothing fear’d, Till fears no more had sav’d me: 20 Th’ unwary Sailor thus, aghast, The wheeling torrent viewing, ‘Mid circling horrors sinks at last In overwhelming ruin. SC no. 21 (1793) The revised version of a song originally written in honour of Burns’s friend Maria Riddell. The name was changed from Maria to Eliza after he fell out with Maria Riddell’s family. Burns judged the old Scots air Nansy’s to the green-wood gane, which his friend Stephen Clarke liked, ‘capable of sentiment and pathos in a high degree’ (Letter 632, Letters II 303); but Thomson chose instead Alace yat I came owr the moor.

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232 When wild war’s deadly blast was blawn Tune: The mill, mill O

When wild war’s deadly blast was blawn, And gentle peace returning,

Songs and notes

679

Wi’ mony a sweet babe fatherless And mony a widow mourning, I left the lines and tented field, 5 Where lang I’d been a lodger, My humble knapsack a’ my wealth, A poor and honest sodger. A leal, light heart was in my breast, My hand unstain’d wi’ plunder; 10 And for fair Scotia, hame again I cheery on did wander. I thought upon the banks of Coil, I thought upon my Nancy, And ay I mind’t the witching smile 15 That caught my youthful fancy. At length I reach’d the bonny glen, Where early life I sported; I pass’d the mill and trysting thorn, Where Nancy aft I courted: 20 Wha spied I but my ain dear maid, Down by her mother’s dwelling! And turn’d me round to hide the flood That in my een was swelling. Wi’ alter’d voice, quoth I, sweet lass, 25 Sweet as yon hawthorn’s blossom, O! happy, happy may he be That’s dearest to thy bosom: My purse is light, I’ve far to gang, And fain wad be thy lodger; 30 I’ve serv’d my king and country lang, Take pity on a sodger! Sae wistfully she gaz’d on me, And lovelier was than ever; Quo’ she, a sodger ance I lo’ed, 35 Forget him shall I never: Our humble cot, and hamely fare,

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Ye freely shall partake it. That gallant badge, the dear cockade, Ye’re welcome for the sake o’t. 40 ***

She gaz’d—she redden’d like a rose,— Syne pale like ony lily, She sank within my arms, and cried, Art thou mine ain dear Willie? By Him who made yon sun and sky, 45 By whom true love’s regarded, I am the man—and thus may still True lovers be rewarded! The wars are o’er, and I’m come hame, And find thee still true-hearted; 50 Tho’ poor in gear, we’re rich in love, And mair,—we’se ne’er be parted! Quo’ she, my grandsire left me gowd, A mailin plenish’d fairly; And come, my faithful sodger lad, 55 Thou’rt welcome to it dearly! For gold the merchant ploughs the main, The farmer ploughs the manor; But glory is the sodger’s prize, The sodger’s wealth is honour; 60 The brave poor sodger ne’er despise, Nor count him as a stranger; Remember, he’s his country’s stay In day and hour of danger. SC no. 22 (1793) blawn blown sodger soldier leal true, loyal hame home mind’t remembered

Songs and notes

681

trysting meeting aft often quoth said fain gladly hamely homely gear money, possessions grandsire grandfather gowd gold mailin small-holding plenish’d equipped Burns’s attempt to write a song for an air which he had long admired, The Mill, the Mill O. He knew a song by Ramsay, ‘Beneath a green Shade I found a fair Maid’ (Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 20), which, although different in content and style from his song, probably gave him the idea of the soldier returning to his true love. When he sent the song to Thomson, the editor criticized lines three and four of the first stanza. Burns replied, ‘I cannot alter the disputed lines…. What you think a defect, I esteem a positive beauty: so you see how Doctors differ’ (Letter 567, Letters II 218). Burns was also familiar with an old bawdy song to the air (Edinburgh University Library, Laing MSS; Burns Chronicle (1922) 5). The tune had appeared in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751) III no. 2, and in many other collections.

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Songs and notes

683

233 O, ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? (first version) Tune: O ken ye what Meg

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O, ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? An’ ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? A braw new naig wi’ the tail o’ a rottan, And that’s what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten! O, ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill loe’s dearly? 5 An’ ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill loes dearly? A dram o’ gude strunt in a morning early, And that’s what Meg o’ the Mill lo’es dearly! O, ken ye how Meg o’ the Mill was married, An’ ken ye how Meg o’ the Mill was married; 10 The Priest he was oxter’d, the Clerk he was carried, And that’s how Meg o’ the Mill was married. O, ken ye how Meg o’ the Mill was bedded, An’ ken ye how Meg o’ the Mill was bedded; The groom gat sae fu’ he fell awald beside it, 15 And that’s how Meg o’ the Mill was bedded. SMM no. 566 (1803)

naig small horse rottan rat strunt liquor oxter’d carried under the arm fu’ tipsy awald in a state of drunkenness Probably traditional words, which Burns revised for the SMM, sending to Johnson for the air Jacky Hume’s lament (Letter 667, May 1795). The air in SMM is not certainly Jacky Hume’s lament.

Songs and notes

685

234 O, ken ye what Meg o’ the mill has gotten? (second version) Tune: O bonie lass, will ye lie in a barrack?

O, ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? An’ ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? She’s gotten a coof wi’ a claut o’ siller, And broken the heart o’ the barley miller! The Miller was strappin, the Miller was ruddy, 5 A heart like a lord, and a hue like a lady; The Laird was a widdifu’, bleerit knurl; She’s left the gude-fallow and taen the churl. The Miller he hecht her, a heart leal and luving,

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The Laird did address her wi’ matter mair muving, 10 A fine pacing horse wi’ a clear chainet bridle, A whip by her side, and a bony side-saddle. O wae on the siller, it is sae prevailing, And wae on the luve that’s fix’d on a mailin! A tocher’s nae word in a true lover’s parle, 15 But, gie me my luve, and a fig on the warl! Currie (1800) coof fool claut o’ siller lump, handful of money widdifu’ rascally bleerit bleary knurl dwarf -fallow fellow hecht promised leal true wae woe mailin arable land held on lease tocher dowry parle speech warl world Burns wrote two comic songs with the same first line. The first, published in the SMM in 1803 (no. 233) presents Meg in an unflattering light as a bride with a liking for drink. Content with the first version, Johnson apparently declined to publish this second song, which the poet then sent to George Thomson. It turns on one of Burns’s favourite contrasts, the difference between love and material values. He wrote to Thomson in September 1793, ‘my song “Ken ye what Meg o’ the mill has gotten” pleases myself so much, that I cannot without disgust try my hand at another song to the air; so I shall not attempt it’ (Letter 588, Letters II 253). The air, O bonie lass, is in Campbell’s Reels (1778) no. 80.

Songs and notes

687

235 Blythe hae I been on yon hill Tune: The Quaker’s wife

Blythe hae I been on yon hill As the lambs before me, Careless ilka thought, and free As the breeze flew o’er me: Now nae langer sport and play, 5 Mirth or sang can please me; Lesley is sae fair and coy, Care and anguish seize me. Heavy, heavy is the task, Hopeless love declaring: 10 Trembling, I dow nocht but glowr, Sighing, dumb, despairing! If she winna ease the thraws,

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In my bosom swelling; Underneath the grass-green sod 15 Soon maun be my dwelling. SC no. 58 (1799) dow am able nocht nothing winna will not thraws twists, turns A song in honour of Lesley Bailie, the attractive daughter of an Ayrshire neighbour of Mrs Frances Dunlop (cf. no. 168). Burns sent the song to George Thomson in May 1793, and commented: You know Fraser, the Hautboy player in Edinr?—He is here,instructing a band of Music for a Fencible Corps quartered in this country.—Among many of his airs that please me, there is one, well known as a Reel by the name of, ‘The quaker’s wife’; and which I remember a grand Aunt of mine used to sing, by the name of ‘Liggeram cosh, my bonie wee lass’.— Mr Fraser plays it slow, and with an expression that quite charms me.—I got such an enthusiast in it, that I made a Song for it, which I here subjoin; and inclose Fraser’s set… I think the song is not in my worst manner. (Letter 567, Letters II 218–19) In a later letter, he referred to the song as ‘one of the finest songs I ever made in my life; and besides, is composed on a young lady, positively the most beautiful, lovely woman in the world’ (Letter 586, ibid., 244). The tune is taken from Niel Gow’s Complete Repository (1802) II. Cf. no. 110.

Songs and notes

689

236 O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide Tune: Logan Water

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O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide The day I was my Willie’s bride, And years sinsyne hae o’er us run Like Logan to the simmer sun: But now thy flowery banks appear 5 Like drumlie Winter, dark and drear, While my dear lad maun face his faes Far, far frae me and Logan braes. Again the merry month o’ May Has made our hills and vallies gay; 10 The birds rejoice in leafy bowers, The bees hum round the breathing flowers: Blythe Morning lifts his rosy eye, And Evening’s tears are tears of joy: My soul, delightless, a’ surveys, 15 While Willie’s far frae Logan braes. Within yon milkwhite hawthorn bush, Amang her nestlings sits the thrush; Her faithfu’ Mate will share her toil, Or wi’ his song her cares beguile: 20 But I, wi’ my sweet nurslings here, Nae Mate to help, nae Mate to cheer, Pass widowed nights and joyless days, While Willie’s far frae Logan braes. O wae upon you, Men o’ State, 25 That brethren rouse in deadly hate! As ye make mony a fond heart mourn, Sae may it on your heads return! How can your flinty hearts enjoy The widow’s tears, the orphan’s cry: 30 But soon may Peace bring happy days And Willie, hame to Logan braes! SC no. 116 (1803)

Songs and notes

691

sinsyne since then simmer summer drumlie muddy faes foes wae woe Burns wrote to Thomson on 7 April 1793 that the air Logan Water, to which he knew ‘a good many different’ songs, was ‘sweetly susceptible of rural imagery’, and promised to match words to it (Letter 557, Letters II 204). A few weeks later, he asked the same correspondent: Have you ever, my dear Sir, felt your bosom ready to burst with indignation, on reading of, or seeing, how these mighty villains who divide kingdom against kingdom, desolate provinces & lay Nations waste out of the wantonness of Ambition, or often from still more ignoble passions?—In a mood of this kind today, I recollected the air of Logan Water, & it occurred to me that its querulous melody probably had its origin from the plaintive indignation of some swelling, suffering heart, fired at the tyrannic strides of some Public Destroyer; and overwhelmed with private distresses, the consequences of a Country’s ruin.—If I have done anything at all like justice to my feelings, the following song, composed in three-quarters of an hour’s lucubrations in my elbow-chair, ought to have some merit. (Letter 566, ibid., 217) Subsequently, he made minor changes to the song in response to criticism from Thomson. The air Logan Water is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 23 and several other collections.

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237 O were my love yon lilac fair Tune: Gin my love were yon red rose

O were my love yon lilac fair Wi’ purple blossoms to the spring, And I a bird to shelter there, When wearied on my little wing. How I wad mourn, when it was torn 5 By Autumn wild, and Winter rude! But I wad sing on wanton wing, When youthfu’ May its bloom renew’d. O gin my love were yon red rose, That grows upon the castle wa! 10 And I mysel’ a drap o’ dew, Into her bonnie breast to fa! Oh, there beyond expression blesst

Songs and notes

693

I’d feast on beauty a’ the night; Seal’d on her silk-saft faulds to rest, 15 Till fley’d awa by Phebus’ light. SC no. 154 (1805) gin if drap drop saft soft faulds folds fley’d awa’ frightened away Lines 9–16 are a traditional fragment collected by Herd (Herd’s Manuscripts 98; Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II 4). In a letter to Thomson of June 1793, Burns commented on the traditional words: This thought is inexpressibly beautiful; and quite, so far as I know, original.—It is too short … I have often tried to eke a stanza to it, but in vain.—After balancing myself for a musing five minutes, on the hind-legs of my elbow-chair, I produced [ll. 1–8]…far inferiour to the foregoing, I frankly confess… (Letter 566, Letters II 217) The air is in the Macfarlan MS (1740) (Dick 401).

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238 There was a lass and she was fair

There was a lass and she was fair, At kirk and market to be seen; When a’ our fairest maids were met, The fairest maid was bonie Jean. And ay she wrought her Mammie’s wark, 5 And ay she sang sae merrilie; The blythest bird upon the bush Had ne’er a lighter heart than she. But hawks will rob the tender joys That bless the little lintwhite’s nest; 10 And frost will blight the fairest flowers, And love will break the soundest rest. Young Robie was the brawest lad, The flower and pride of a’ the glen; And he had owsen, sheep and kye, 15 And wanton naigies nine or ten. He gaed wi’ Jeanie to the tryste, He danc’d wi’ Jeanie on the down;

Songs and notes

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And lang e’er witless Jeanie wist Her heart was tint, her peace was stown. 20 As in the bosom o’ the stream The moon-beam dwells at dewy e’en; So, trembling, pure, was tender love Within the breast o’ bonie Jean. And now she works her Mammie’s wark, 25 And ay she sighs wi’ care and pain; Yet wist na what her ail might be, Or what wad mak her weel again. But did na Jeanie’s heart lowp light, And did na joy blink in her e’e; 30 As Robie tauld a tale o’ love, Ae e’enin on the lily lea. The sun was sinking in the west, The birds sang sweet in ilka grove: His cheek to hers he fondly laid, 35 And whisper’d thus his tale o’ love. O Jeanie fair, I loe thee dear; O canst thou think to fancy me! Or wilt thou leave thy Mammie’s cot, And learn to tent the farms wi’ me. 40 ***

At barn or byre thou shalt na drudge, Or naething else to trouble thee; But stray amang the heather-bells, And tent the waving corn wi’ me. Now what could artless Jeanie do? 45 She had na wil to say him na: At length she blush’d a sweet consent, And love was ay between them twa.

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SC no. 152 (1805) Mammie’s wark Mother’s work lintwhite linnet brawest best-looking owsen oxen kye cattle naigies ponies tryste appointed meeting-place lang e’er long before wist knew tint lost stown stolen ail trouble lowp leap tauld told ae e’enin one evening tent look after byre cowshed Written for Jean, daughter of John McMurdo of Dumfries, who for a time engaged Burns’s friend Stephen Clarke as singing-master. The ‘beautiful little air’ which inspired the song was taken down by Clarke from the singing of Burns’s wife, Jean. It has not been identified, as Burns sent his copy to George Thomson, who preferred to use another tune to these words, thus fulfilling Burns’s prediction in the letter accompanying his song, I have still several M.S.S. Scots airs by me, which I have pickt up, mostly from the singing of country lasses.—They please me vastly; but your learned lugs would perhaps be displeased with the very feature for which I like them.—I call them Simple; you would pronounce them Silly. (Letter 554, Letters II 198)

Songs and notes

697

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698

239 While larks with little wing Tune: Aileen a roon

While larks with little wing Fann’d the pure air, Viewing the breathing spring, Forth I did fare: Gay, the sun’s golden eye 5 Peep’d o’er the mountains high; ‘Such thy bloom’ did I cry— ‘Phillis the fair’. In each bird’s careless song,

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699

Glad, I did share; 10 While yon wild flowers among Chance led me there: Sweet to the opening day, Rosebuds bent the dewy spray; ‘Such thy bloom’ did I say, 15 ‘Phillis the fair’. Down in a shady walk, Doves cooing were; I mark’d the cruel hawk, Caught in a snare: 20 So kind may Fortune be, Such make his destiny! He who would injure thee, Phillis the fair. Currie (1800) Burns sent this song to Thomson on 13 August 1792 with the comment, ‘I…tried my hand on “Robin Adair,” and you will probably think, with little success; but it is such a dmned, cramp, out-of-the-way measure, that I despair of doing anything better to it’ (Letter 575, Letters II 228). Phillis was the sister of Jean McMurdo (cf. no. 238). The air Eileen a roon or Robin Adair is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753) V no. 21.

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240 Had I a cave on some wild, distant shore Tune: Aileen a roon

Had I a cave on some wild, distant shore, Where the winds howl to the waves’ dashing roar: There would I weep my woes, There seek my lost repose, Till Grief my eyes should close, 5 Ne’er to wake more. Falsest of womankind, canst thou declare,

Songs and notes

701

All thy fond plighted vows—fleeting as air! To thy new lover hie, Laugh o’er thy perjury—10 Then in thy bosom try, What peace is there! SC no. 92 (1799) Burns wrote to Thomson in August 1793, That crinkum-crankum tune, ‘Robin Adair’ has run so in my head, and I succeeded so ill in my last attempt [see no. 239], that I have ventured, in this morning’s walk, one essay more.—You, my dear Sir, will remember an unfortunate part of our worthy friend, Cunningham’s story, which happened about three years ago.—That struck my fancy, and I endeavoured to do the idea justice. (Letter 576, Letters II 229) On Cunningham’s misfortune in love, cf. nos. 67 and 214.

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241 O, whistle an’ I’ll come to ye, my lad! Tune: Whistle an’ I’ll come to ye, my lad

Songs and notes

703

CHORUS O, whistle an’ I’ll come to ye, my lad! O, whistle an’ I’ll come to ye, my lad! Tho’ father an’ mother an’ a’ should gae mad, O, whistle an’ I’ll come to ye, my lad! But warily tent when ye come to court me, 5 And come nae unless the back-yett be a-jee; Syne up the back-style, and let naebody see, And come as ye were na comin to me. And come as ye were na comin to me. O whistle, etc. At kirk, or at market whene’er ye meet me, 10 Gang by me as tho’ that ye car’d nae a flie; But steal me a blink o’ your bonie black e’e, Yet look as ye were na lookin at me— Yet look as ye were na lookin at me. O whistle, etc. Ay vow and protest that ye care na for me, 15 And whyles ye may lightly my beauty a wee; But court nae anither, tho’ jokin ye be, For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me— For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me. O whistle, etc. SC no. 94 (1799)

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yett gate a-jee ajar syne the as ye were na as if you were not nae a flie not at all blink glance whyles at times lightly scorn wyle beguile *** Working with a traditional chorus,

O whistle, an’ I’ll come to you, my lad; O whistle, an’ I’ll come to you, my lad: Though father and mither should baith gae mad, O whistle, an’ I’ll come to you, my lad. Burns sent for publication in SMM no. 106 (1788) a song consisting of this and a single verse of his own composition:

Come down the back stairs when ye come to court me; Come down the back stairs when ye come to court me: Come down the back stairs, and let naebody see; And come as ye were na’ coming to me. Then in 1793 he sent to George Thomson’s SC this expanded version of the song, aptly developing as a theme his earlier hint about an unobtrusive courtship, and now showing the girl’s attitude to be at once playful, tender and vulnerable:

Ay vow and protest that ye care na for me, And whyles, ye may lightly my beauty a wee; But court nae anither, tho’ jokin ye be, For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me— For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me. Burns seems to have feared that Thomson might not take to the song, for a year later he urged its merits as ‘the most beautiful of airs…surely highly capable of feeling and sentiment, and the song is one of my best’ (Letter 647, Letters II 329). In August 1795 he asked for the last line of the first verse to be altered from ‘O whistle, an’ I’ll come to you, my lad’ to ‘Thy Jeanie will venture wi’ ye, my lad’. This was at the particular request of

Songs and notes

705

Jean Lorimer, ‘a Fair One, herself the heroine of the song’ (Letter 676, ibid., 363). Thomson preferred the original form of the line, but complied with Burns’s wish when reprinting the song.

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242 Adown winding Nith I did wander Tune: The muckin o’ Geordy’s byre

Adown winding Nith I did wander To mark the sweet flowers as they spring; Adown winding Nith I did wander Of Phillis to muse and to sing. CHORUS Awa wi’ your belles and your beauties, 5 They never wi’ her can compare!

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707

Wha-ever hae met wi’ my Phillis, Has met wi’ the Queen o’ the Fair. The Daisy amus’d my fond fancy, So artless, so simple, so wild: 10 Thou emblem, said I, o’ my Phillis, For she is simplicity’s child. Awa wi’ your belles, etc. The rose-bud’s the blush o’ my Charmer, Her sweet balmy lip when ‘tis prest: How fair and how pure is the lily, 15 But fairer and purer her breast. Awa wi’ your belles, etc. Yon knot of gay flowers in the arbour, They ne’er wi’ my Phillis can vie: Her breath is the breath o’ the woodbine, Its dew-drop o’ diamond, her eye. 20 Awa wi’ your belles, etc. Her voice is the songs of the morning, That wake thro’ the green-spreading grove; When Phebus peeps over the mountains On music, and pleasure, and love. Awa wi’ your belles, etc. But Beauty, how frail and how fleeting, 25 The bloom of a fine summer’s day; While Worth in the mind of my Phillis Will flourish without a decay. Awa wi’ your belles, etc. SC no. 66 (1799) *** ‘Another favorite air of mine,’ Burns wrote to George Thomson in August 1793, is, The muckin’ o’ Geordie’s byre.—When sung slow with expression, I have wished that it had had better poetry: that, I have endeavoured to

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supply…. Mr Clarke [Stephen Clarke, who was responsible for music in the Museum] begs you to give Miss Phillis a corner in your Book, as she is a particular Flame of his, and out of compliment to him, I have made the Song.—She is a Miss Phillis Mcmurdo, sister to the ‘Bonie Jean’ which I sent you some time ago. They are both pupils of his. (Letter 578, Letters II 231–2) Phillis and Jean Mcmurdo were the daughters of John Mcmurdo, the Duke of Queensberry’s chamberlain at Drumlanrig. Burns agreed to drop one stanza at Thomson’s suggestion, but held out against further changes: I’ll rather write a new song altogether, than make this, English. The sprinkling of Scotch in it, while it is but a sprinkling, gives it an air of rustic naïveté, which time will rather increase than diminish. (Letter 586, ibid., 246) The Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre, an early eighteenth-century air, is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 33 and in other collections. Source of music: SMM no. 96.

Songs and notes

709

The songs of Robert burns

710

243 By Allan stream I chanc’d to rove Tune: Allan Water

Songs and notes

711

By Allan stream I chanc’d to rove, While Phoebus sank beyond Benledi; The winds were whisp’ring thro’ the grove, The yellow corn was waving ready: I listen’d to a lover’s sang, 5 An’ thought on youthfu’ pleasures monie; And ay the wild-wood echoes rang: O, my love Annie’s very bonie. O happy be the woodbine bower, Nae nightly bogle make it eerie; 10 Nor ever sorrow stain the hour, The place and time I met my Dearie! Her head upon my throbbing breast, She, sinking, said, ‘I’m thine for ever!’ While mony a kiss the seal imprest, 15 The sacred vow, we ne’er should sever. The haunt o’ Spring’s the primrose-brae, The Simmer joys the flocks to follow; How cheery, thro’ her shortening day, Is Autumn in her weeds o’ yellow: 20 But can they melt the glowing heart, Or chain the soul in speechless pleasure, Or thro’ each nerve the rapture dart, Like meeting her, our bosom’s treasure. SC no. 79 (1799) sang song bogle goblin eerie sinister Simmer summer ‘I walked out yesterday evening’, Burns wrote to Thomson on 19 August 1793,

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712

with a volume of the Museum in my hand, when turning up ‘Allan Water’, ‘What numbers shall the Muse repeat,’ &c. it appeared to me rather unworthy of so fine an air; and recollecting that it is on your list, I sat, and raved, under the shade of an old thorn, till I wrote one to suit the measure.—I may be wrong; but I think it not in my worst style. You must know, that in Ramsay’s tea-table, where the modern Song first appeared, the ancient name of the tune, Allan says, is ‘Allan water,’ or, ‘My love, Annie’s very bonie.’—This last has certainly been a line of the original song; so I took up the idea…(Letter 577, Letters II 230) The air is to be found in manuscript collections of the late seventeenth century, and also in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 25 and other collections.

Songs and notes

713

244 Come, let me take thee to my breast Tune: Cauld kail

Come, let me take thee to my breast, And pledge we ne’er shall sunder; And I shall spurn, as vilest dust, The warld’s wealth and grandeur:

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And do I hear my Jeanie own, 5 That equal transports move her? I ask for dearest life alone That I may live to love her. Thus in my arms, wi’ a’ thy charms, I clasp my countless treasure; 10 I seek nae mair o’ Heaven to share, Than sic a moment’s pleasure: And by thy een, sae bonie blue, I swear I’m thine for ever! And on thy lips I seal my vow, 15 And break it shall I never! SC no. 93 (1799) Sent to Thomson on 28 August 1793, with the comment: That tune, cauld kail in Aberdeen, is such a favorite of yours, that I once more roved out yesterevening for a gloamin-shot at the Muses; when the Muse that presides o’er the shores of Nith, or rather my old Inspiring dearest Nymph, Coila, whispered me the following.—I have two reasons for thinking that it was my early, sweet, simple Inspirer, that was by my elbow, ‘smooth gliding without step’, & pouring the Song on my glowing fancy: in the first place, since I left Coila’s native haunts, not a fragment of a Poet has arisen to chear her solitary musings by catching inspiration from her; so I more than suspect that she has followed me hither, or at least makes me occasional visits: secondly, the last stanza of this song is the very words that Coila taught me many years ago, and which I set to an old Scots reel in Johnson’s Museum. (Letter 580, Letters II 233) The song may have been intended for Jean Lorimer. Source of music: SMM no. 162. Cf. no. 226.

Songs and notes

715

245 Meet me on the warlock knowe Tune: Dainty Davie

Sent to Thomson in August 1793, with this note: I have been looking over another & a better song of mine in the Museum, which I have altered as follows, & which I am persuaded will please you.—The words ‘Dainty Davie,’ glide so sweetly in the air that to a Scots ear, any song to it, without ‘Davie’ being the hero, would have a

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716

lame effect… So much for Davie. The chorus, you know, to the low part of the tune. (Letter 581, Letters II 234–5) Thomson objected to the arrangement of the tune, but Burns held to his view, writing I have heard sung, nineteen thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine times, and always with the chorus to the low part of the tune…. If it will not suit, as I proposed, we will lay two of the stanzas together, & make the chorus follow that. (Letter 586, ibid., 244)

CHORUS Meet me on the warlock knowe, Dainty Davie, Dainty Davie; There I’ll spend the day wi’ you, My ain dear dainty Davie. Now rosy May comes in wi’ flowers, 5 To deck her gay, green spreading bowers; And now comes in my happy hours, To wander wi’ my Davie. Meet me, etc. The crystal waters round us fa’, The merry birds are lovers a’, 10 The scented breezes round us blaw, Awandering wi’ my Davie. Meet me, etc. As purple morning starts the hare, To steal upon her early fare, Then through the dews I will repair, 15 To meet my faithfu’ Davie. Meet me, etc. When day, expiring in the west, The curtain draws o’ Nature’s rest, I’ll flee to his arms I lo’e the best, And that’s my ain dear Davie. 20 CHORUS

Songs and notes

717

Meet me on the warlock knowe, Bonnie Davie, Dainty Davie; There I’ll spend the day wi’ you, My ain dear dainty Davie. SC no. 69 (1799) knowe mound dainty ‘pleasant, good-humoured, agreeable’ (Burns)

246 Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled Tune: Hey, tutti taitie

Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed Or to victorie!

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718

Now’s the day and now’s the hour; 5 See the front o’ battle lour, See approach proud Edward’s pow’r— Chains and slaverie! Wha will be a traitor-knave? Wha can fill a coward’s grave? 10 Wha sae base as be a Slave? Let him turn and flie. Wha for Scotland’s king and law, Freedom’s sword will strongly draw, Free-man stand, or Free-man fa’, 15 Let him follow me. By Oppression’s woes and pains! By your Sons in servile chains! We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free! 20 Lay the proud Usurpers low! Tyrants fall in every foe; LIBERTY’s in every blow! Let us DO—or DIE!!! SC no. 133 (1803) For Burns’s own account of how this famous song came to be written, and his resistance to changes proposed by George Thomson, see Introduction, p. 17. Source of music: SMM no. 170, with the strains in reverse order. Cf. no. 80.

Songs and notes

719

247 As down the burn they took their way Tune: Down the burn, Davie

As down the burn they took their way, And thro’ the flowery dale; His cheek to hers he aft did lay, And love was ay the tale. With:—‘Mary, when shall we return, 5 Sic pleasures to renew?’

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720

Quoth Mary:—‘Love, I like the burn, And ay shall follow you.’ Dalhousie MS burn stream aft often quoth said A revision by Burns, undertaken at George Thomson’s request, of a song by Robert Crawford in the Tea-Table Miscellany (included in the SMM no. 74 (1787)). Burns has recast the first half of Crawford’s third stanza and the second half of his fourth:

As down the burn they took their way, What tender tales they said! His cheek to hers he aft did lay, And with her bosom play’d; And that they aften shou’d return, Sic pleasure to renew, Quoth Mary, Love, I like the burn; And ay shall follow you. The air is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 50.

Songs and notes

721

248 Dost ask me, why I send thee here Tune: Todlin Hame

Dost ask me, why I send thee here, This firstling of the infant year? Dost ask me, what this primrose shews, Bepearlèd thus with morning dews? I must whisper to thy ears, 5 The sweets of love are wash’d with tears. This lovely native of the dale

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722

Thou seest, how languid, pensive, pale: Thou seest this bending stalk so weak, That each way yielding doth not break? 10 I must tell thee, these reveal, The doubts and fears that lovers feel. Dalhousie MS Burns’s revision of ‘an old English song’ by Herrick (cf. Hesperides; in Poetical Works, ed. L.C. Martin (1956) 208). He has made few changes to lines 1–6. Herrick’s version of ll. 7–12 reads:

Ask me why this Rose doth show All yellow, green, and sickly too? Ask me why the stalk is weak And yielding each way, yet not break? I must tell you, These discover What doubts and fears are in a Lover. The air Todlin Hame to the traditional words of a drinking-song, is in SMM no. 275 (1790). Burns agreed with Urbani that it was ‘highly suceptible of pathos’ (Letter 586, Letters II 246).

Songs and notes

723

249 Thou hast left me ever, Jamie Tune: Fee him father, fee him

Thou hast left me ever, Jamie, Thou hast left me ever! Thou hast left me ever, Jamie, Thou hast left me ever! Aften hast thou vow’d that death 5 Only should us sever; Now thou’s left thy lass for ay— I maun see thee never, Jamie,

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724

I’ll see thee never! Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie, 10 Thou hast me forsaken: Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie, Thou hast me forsaken. Thou canst love anither jo, While my heart is breaking: 15 Soon my weary een I’ll close— Never mair to waken, Jamie, Never mair to waken. SC no. 90 (1799) jo sweetheart Burns wrote to Thomson about this song and its air in September 1793 as follows, Fee him, father—I inclose you, Fraser’s set of this tune when he plays it slow; in fact, he makes it the language of Despair.—I shall here give you two stanzas, in that style; merely to try, if it will be any improvement.— Were it possible, in singing, to give it half the pathos which Fraser gives it in playing, it would make an admirably pathetic song.—I do not give these verses for any merit they may have.—I composed them at the time in which Patie Allan’s mither die’d—that was, ‘About the back o’ midnight’—& by the lea-side of a bowl of punch which had overset every mortal in company, except the Hautbois & the Muse.— (Letter 586, Letters II 244–5) Thomson noted on the manuscript that Burns proceeded no further with the song. When ‘Thou hast left me ever’ eventually appeared in 1799 in SC, Thomson set it to the wrong air. Burns knew Fee him father, which had appeared in Bremner’s Scots Songs (1757) and elsewhere, as the set of a traditional song, Saw ye Johnie cummin. In the Interleaved Museum he writes, ‘This song for genuine humor in the verses, and lively originality in the air, is unparalleled. I take it to be very old’ (Notes 4). Source of tune: SMM no. 9.

Songs and notes

725

250 Behold the hour, the boat arrive! Tune: Oran gaoil

Behold the hour, the boat arrive! Thou goest, thou darling of my heart! Severed from thee, can I survive?

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726

But Fate has willed and we must part. I’ll often greet this surging swell, 5 Yon distant isle will often hail:— ‘E’en here I took the last farewell; There, latest mark’d her vanished sail!’ Along the solitary shore, While flitting sea-fowl round me cry, 10 Across the rolling, dashing roar I’ll westward turn my wistful eye: Happy, thou Indian grove, I’ll say, Where now my Nancy’s path may be! While through thy sweets she loves to stray, 15 O tell me, does she muse on me! SC no. 154 (1805)

Burns sent the first version of this song to Clarinda on 27 December 1791 when she was about to sail to the West Indies to see her husband. It is based on a song published in the Edinburgh Magazine (1774) and elsewhere:

Behold the fatal hour arrive, Nice, my Nice, oh, farewell! Sever’d from thee can I survive, From thee whom I have lov’d so well! Along the solitary shore I’ll wander, pensive and alone, And wil re-echoing rocks implore To tell me where my nymph has gone… (Burns Chronicle (1962) 64) A revised version, ‘glowing from the Mint’, and lacking the name Nancy, went to George Thomson in September 1793 (Letter 583). The air Oran gaoil, and a translation of a Gaelic song set to it, are in SMM no. 273 (1790).

Songs and notes

727

251 Where are the joys I hae met in the morning? Tune: Saw ye my father?

Where are the joys I hae met in the morning, That danc’d to the lark’s early sang? Where is the peace that awaited my wand’ring At e’ening the wild woods amang? Nae mair a winding the course o’ yon river, 5 And marking sweet flowerets sae fair: Nae mair I trace the light footsteps o’ Pleasure, But Sorrow and sad-sighing Care. Is it that Simmer’s forsaken our vallies, And grim, surly Winter is near? 10 No, no! the bees humming round the gay roses Proclaim it the pride o’ the year. Fain wad I hide, what I fear to discover, Yet lang, lang too well hae I known: A’ that has caused the wreck in my bosom, 15 Is Jenny, fair Jenny alone.

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728

Time cannot aid me, my griefs are immortal, Not Hope dare a comfort bestow: Come then, enamour’d and fond of my anguish, Enjoyment I’ll seek in my woe. 20 SC no. 102 (1801) fain glad Probably sent to Janet Miller of Dalswinton, eldest daughter of Burns’s former landlord, on 9 September 1793. Burns wrote to her, ‘I have taken the liberty to make you the Heroine… I have formed in my fancy a little love-story for you’ (Letter 585, Letters II 239). He wrote to Thomson at about the same time, Saw ye my father—is one of my greatest favorites.—The evening before last, I wandered out, & began a tender song, in what I think is its native style.—I must premise, that the old way, & the way to give most effect, is to have no starting note, as the Fiddlers call it, but to burst at once into the pathos…. I have sprinkled it with the Scotch dialect, but it may be easily turned into correct English. (Letter 586, ibid., 245) The air appears in Stewart’s Scots Songs (1772) no. 14, and in the Perth Musical Miscellany (1786) 25.

Songs and notes

729

252 Thine am I, my Chloris fair Tune: The Quaker’s wife

Thine am I, my Chloris fair, Well thou may’st discover; Every pulse along my veins Tells the ardent Lover. To thy bosom lay my heart, 5 There to throb and languish: Tho’ Despair had wrung its core, That would heal its anguish. Take away these rosy lips, Rich with balmy treasure: 10 Turn away thine eyes of love, Lest I die with pleasure!

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730

What is Life when wanting Love? Night without a morning: Love’s the cloudless summer sun, 15 Nature gay adorning. SC no. 59 (1799) A song which seems originally to have been inspired by Clarinda (Nancy McLehose), but which in this version is addressed to Chloris (Jean Lorimer), ‘the lady whom in so many fictitious reveries of Passion but with the most ardent sentiments of real friendship, I have so often sung’ (Burns to Thomson: Letter 676, Letters II 364). For source of tune, see nos. 110, 235.

Songs and notes

731

253 When Mary cam over the Border Tune: Minnie’s ay glowerin o’er me

When Mary cam over the Border, When Mary cam over the Border; As eith ‘twas approachin the C—t of a hurchin, Her a—was in sic a disorder.— CHORUS Come cowe me, minnie, come cowe me; 5 Come cowe me, minnie, come cowe me; The hair o’ my a—is grown into my c—t,

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732

And they canna win to, to m—we me. But wanton Wattie cam west on’t, But wanton Wattie cam west on’t, 10 He did it sae tickle, he left nae as meikle ‘S a spider wad bigget a nest on’t. And was nae Wattie a Clinker, He m—w’d frae the Queen to the tinkler, Then sat down, in grief, like the Macedon chief 15 For want o’ mae warlds to conquer.— And O, what a jewel was Mary! And O, what a jewel was Mary! Her face it was fine, and her bosom divine, And her c-nt it was theekit wi’ glory.—20 Come cowe, etc. MMC eith easy hurchin hedgehog cowe crop, trim minnie mother canna cannot m-we copulate with bigget build Clinker lively rogue tinkler itinerant mender of pots and pans mae more theekit thatched As token of his ‘violent propensity for B[au]dry’, Burns sent this and the next song to his friend Robert Cleghorn on 25 October (?1793), with the comment, A fine chiel, a hand-wail’d friend & crony o’ my ain, gat o’er the lugs in loove wi’ a braw, bonie, fodgel hizzie frae the English-side, weel-kenn’d i’ the brugh of Annan by the name o’, Bonie Mary; and I tauld the tale as follows.—N.B. The chorus is auld— (Letter 592, Letters II 255) The air, with Ramsay’s verses, Katy’s Answer, is in SMM no. 172 (1788).

Songs and notes

733

254 In Edinburgh town they’ve made a law Tune: O’er the muir among the heather

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734

In Edinburgh town they’ve made a law, In Edinburgh at the Court o’ Session, That standing pr-cks are fauteors a’, And guilty of a high transgression.— CHORUS Act Sederunt o’ the Session, 5 Decreet o’ the Court o’ Session, That standing pr-cks are fauteors a’, And guilty of a high transgression. And they’ve provided dungeons deep, Ilk lass has ane in her possession; 10 Untill the wretches wail and weep, They there shall lie for their transgression.— CHORUS Act Sederunt o’ the Session, Decreet o’ the Court o’ Session, The rogues in pouring tears shall weep, 15 By act Sederunt o’ the Session.— MMC fauteors defaulters, wrong-doers Sent to Cleghorn with no. 253. Burns wrote to his friend, From my late hours last night, & the dripping fogs & damn’d east-wind of this stupid day, I have left me as little soul as an oyster.—‘Sir John, you are so fretful, you cannot live long.’—‘Why, there it is! Come, sing me a BAUDY-SONG to make me merry!!!’1…. Well! the Law is good for Something, since we can make a B—dy-song out of it. (Letter 592, Letters II 255) Act of Sederunt: ‘in Scotch Law, an ordinance for regulating the forms of procedure before the Court of Session, passed by the judges in virtue of a power conferred by an Act of the Scotch Parliament, 1540, c. 93’ (Oxford English Dictionary). The judgement of a court of law, in this instance the Court of Session.

Songs and notes

735

The air is in Bremner’s Reels (1760), Stewart’s Reels (1761) and SMM no. 328 (1792). A startingnote must be supplied by the singer. Burns says of the song in the Museum that it was composed by Jean Glover, a Kilmarnock whore. ‘I took [it] down…from her singing as she was strolling through the country, with a slight-of-hand blackguard’ (Notes 57). 1

Shakespeare, I Henry IV, III iii.

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736

255 Husband, husband, cease your strife Tune: My jo, Janet

George Thomson wanted Burns to supply English words for certain Scots airs. This example was sent to him in December 1793 (Letter 602, Letters II 266). It is based on My Jo Janet, a vernacular song included in The Tea-Table Miscellany, and, lacking the final stanza, in SMM no. 111 (1788). Thomson praised Burns’s words as ‘inimitable’, but as Kinsley observes, although it is one of Burns’s better English songs, it lacks the broad humour of the vernacular original. The air is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) II no. 36.

Husband, husband, cease your strife, Nor longer idly rave, Sir: Tho’ I am your wedded wife, Yet I am not your slave, Sir.

Songs and notes

737

‘One of two must still obey, 5 ‘Nancy, Nancy; ‘Is it Man or Woman, say, ‘My Spouse Nancy?’ If ‘tis still the lordly word, Service and obedience; 10 I’ll desert my Sov’reign lord, And so, good b’ye, Allegiance! ‘Sad will I be, so bereft, ‘Nancy, Nancy; ‘Yet I’ll try to make a shift, 15 ‘My Spouse Nancy.’— My poor heart then break it must, My last hour I am near it: When you lay me in the dust, Think how you will bear it.—20 ‘I will hope and trust in Heaven, ‘Nancy, Nancy; ‘Strength to bear it will be given, ‘My Spouse Nancy.’— Well, Sir, from the silent dead, 25 Still I’ll try to daunt you; Ever round your midnight bed Horrid sprites shall haunt you.— ‘I’ll wed another, like my Dear, ‘Nancy, Nancy; 30 ‘Then all hell will fly for fear, ‘My Spouse, Nancy.’— SC no. 62 (1799)

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738

256 Wilt thou be my dearie? Tune: The sutor’s dochter

Wilt thou be my dearie? When sorrow wrings thy gentle heart, O, wilt thou let me chear thee? By the treasure of my soul— That’s the love I bear thee—5 I swear and vow, that only thou Shall ever be my dearie! Only thou, I swear and vow Shall ever be my dearie. Lassie, say thou lo’es me; 10

Songs and notes

739

Or if thou wilt na be my ain, Say na thou’lt refuse me: If it winna, canna be, Thou for thine may chuse me, Let me, Lassie, quickly die, 15 Trusting that thou lo’es me Lassie, let me quickly die, Trusting that thou lo’es me. SMM no. 470 (1796), signed ‘B’; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 145 dearie sweetheart winna, canna will not, cannot This song, which was probably written for Miss Janet Miller of Dalswinton, was first published in the Morning Chronicle on 10 May 1794. Burns refers to it as follows in a letter to Alexander Cunningham, dated 3 March 1794: Apropos, do you know the much admired old Highland air called, ‘The Sutor’s dochter?’ It is a first-rate old favorite of mine, & I have written what I reckon one of my best songs to it.—I will send it you, set as I think it should be, & as it was sung with great applause in many fashionable groups by Major Robertson of Lude, who was here with his Corps. (Letter 620, Letters II 284) Kinsley writes: The song is a fine example of Burns’s best lyrical style—tender, passionate, and direct—and of his skill in wedding music and poetry. It is a more mature attempt at structural and tonal contrast than [no. 17 ‘O Mary, at thy window be’], expressing the same kind of sentiment. The low part of the air, the third bar repeating the first, carries the lover’s reiterations, plaintive and subdued; and the mood of entreaty is intensified by the lift in the fourth bar. But the song rises to emphatic declaration and impassioned appeal in the higher part, dropping away again into the quieter (but now intensified) final phrases. (Commentary 1452) The air is in Stewart’s Reels (1763).

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740

257 Here is the glen, and here the bower

Here is the glen, and here the bower, All underneath the birchen shade; The village-bell has told the hour, O what can stay my lovely maid. ’Tis not Maria’s whispering call; 5 ’Tis but the balmy breathing gale, Mixt with some warbler’s dying fall The dewy star of eve to hail. It is Maria’s voice I hear; So calls the woodlark in the grove 10 His little, faithful Mate to chear, At once ’tis music—and ’tis love. And art thou come! and art thou true! O welcome dear to love and me! And let us all our vows renew 15 Along the flowery banks of Cree. SC no. 27 (1798) Burns wrote to Thomson in (?) May 1794, I know you value a Composition, because it is made by one of the Great Ones, as little as I do.—However, I got an air, pretty enough, composed

Songs and notes

741

by Lady Elizabeth Heron of Heron… Cree is a beautiful romantic stream; and as her Ladyship is a particular friend of mine, I have written the following song to it… The air I fear is not worth your while, else I would send it you. (Letter 625, Letters II 294) The air ‘Banks of Cree’ has not been traced. Thomson set the words in the SC no. 27 (1798) to The Flowers of Edinburgh.

The songs of Robert burns

742

258 O my Luve’s like a red, red rose Tune: Major Graham

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June; O my Luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

Songs and notes

743

As fair art thou, my bonie lass, 5 So deep in love am I; And I will love thee still, my Dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry.— Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun: 10 O I will love thee still, my Dear, While the sands o’ life shall run.— And fare thee weel, my only Luve! O fare thee weel a while! And I will come again, my Luve, 15 Tho’ it were ten thousand mile! SMM no. 402 (1796), signed R; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 114 Scotland’s most famous love-song; collected by Burns and lightly revised. See Introduction, p. 25. The song appeared in both SMM V no. 402 (1796), and in SC no. 89 (1799). The tune Major Graham is in Aird’s Airs (1788) III no. 551, and in Gow’s Strathspeys (1784) 6.

The songs of Robert burns

744

259 How can my poor heart be glad Tune: O’er the hills and far away

How can my poor heart be glad, When absent from my Sailor lad; How can I the thought forego— He’s on the seas to meet the foe: Let me wander, let me rove, 5 Still my heart is with my Love: Nightly dreams and thoughts by day

Songs and notes

745

Are with him that’s far away. CHORUS On the seas and far away, On stormy seas and far away; 10 Nightly dreams and thoughts by day Are ay with him that’s far away. When in summer noon I faint, As weary flocks around me pant, Haply in this scorching sun 15 My Sailor’s thundering at his gun: Bullets spare my only joy! Bullets spare my darling boy! Fate do with me what you may, Spare but him that’s far away. 20 CHORUS On the seas and far away, On stormy seas and far away, Fate do with me what you may, Spare but him that’s far away. At the starless midnight hour 25 When Winter rules with boundless power; As the storms the forest tear, And thunders rend the howling air: Listening to the doubling roar, Surging on the rocky shore, 30 All I can—I weep and pray For his weal that’s far away. CHORUS On the seas and far away, On stormy seas and far away; All I can—I weep and pray 35 For his weal that’s far away.

The songs of Robert burns

746

***

Peace thy olive wand extend, And bid wild War his ravage end, Man with brother Man to meet, And as a brother kindly greet: 40 Then may Heaven with prosperous gales Fill my Sailor’s welcome sails, To my arms their charge convey, My dear lad that’s far away. CHORUS On the seas and far away, 45 On stormy seas and far away; To my arms their charge convey, My dear lad that’s far away. SC no. 161 (1805) An English song for a favourite air of George Thomson’s. Burns was at first ‘pleased with several lines in it’, but ‘I own that now, it appears rather a flimsy business’ (Letter 635, Letters II 304:30 August 1794). Thomson made several criticisms (Currie IV 158), with the result that in September 1794 Burns withdrew the song as uneven: ‘Making a poem is like begetting a son; you cannot know whether you have a wise man or a fool, untill you produce him to the world and try him’ (Letter 636, Letters II 305). Thomson nevertheless printed the song in 1805. The seventeenth-century air, which was made very popular by Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, occurs in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1755) VII and in several other collections, including SMM no. 62 (1787). Source of tune: Thomas D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719) V 316.

Songs and notes

747

The songs of Robert burns

748

260 Ca’ the yowes to the knowes Tune: Ca’ the yowes

Burns’s revision of a partly traditional song already printed in the Museum (cf. no. 64). He wrote to Thomson in September 1794, When I gave it to Johnson, I added some Stanzas…but still it will not do for you.—In a solitary stroll which I took today, I tried my hand on a few pastoral lines following up the idea of the chorus, which I would preserve.—Here it is, with all its crudities and imperfections on its head. (Letter 636, Letters II 306) Clouden (1.6) is a tributary of the Nith. The ‘silent towers’ (1.13) are those of Lincluden Abbey. Burns was responsible for the air being collected from the singing of the Rev. John Clunie; cf. no. 64 note.

CHORUS Ca’ the yowes to the knowes, Ca’ them whare the heather grows, Ca’ them whare the burnie rowes, My bonie Dearie. Hark, the mavis’ evening sang 5 Sounding Clouden’s woods amang; Then a faulding let us gang, My bonie Dearie. Ca’ the, etc.

Songs and notes

749

We’ll gae down by Clouden side, Through the hazels spreading wide 10 O’er the waves, that sweetly glide To the moon sae clearly. Ca’ the, etc. Yonder Clouden’s silent towers, Where at moonshine midnight hours O’er the dewy bending flowers 15 Fairies dance sae cheary. Ca’ the, etc. Ghaist nor bogle shalt thou fear; Thou’rt to Love and Heaven sae dear, Nocht of Ill may come thee near, My bonie Dearie. 20 Ca’ the, etc. Fair and lovely as thou art, Thou hast stown my very heart; I can die—but canna part, My bonie Dearie. Ca’ the, etc. Dalhousie MS yowes ewes knowes hillocks burnie stream rowes flows faulding enfolding, gathering ghaist ghost bogle spectre, goblin nocht nothing stown stolen

261 Sae flaxen were her ringlets

The songs of Robert burns

Tune: Oonagh’s Waterfall

Sae flaxen were her ringlets, Her eyebrows of a darker hue, Bewitchingly o’er arching Twa laughing een o’ bonie blue, Her smiling, sae wyling, 5 Wad make a wretch forget his woe! What pleasure, what treasure, Unto these rosy lips to grow!

750

Songs and notes

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Such was my Chloris’ bonie face, When first that bonie face I saw, 10 And ay my Chloris’ dearest charm— She says she lo’es me best of a’. Like harmony her motion; Her pretty ankle is a spy, Betraying fair proportion, 15 Wad make a saint forget the sky. Sae warming, sae charming, Her fauteless form and gracefu’ air; Ilk feature—auld Nature Declar’d that she could do nae mair: 20 Her’s are the willing chains o’ love, By conquering Beauty’s sovereign law; And ay my Chloris dearest charm, She says, she lo’es me best of a’. Let others love the city, 25 And gaudy shew at sunny noon; Gie me the lonely valley, The dewy eve, and rising moon Fair beaming, and streaming Her silver light the boughs amang: 30 While falling, recalling, The amorous thrush concludes his sang; There, dearest Chloris, wilt thou rove By wimpling burn and leafy shaw, And hear my vows o’ truth and love, 35 And say, thou lo’es me best of a’. SMM no. 447 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns. An Irish Air’; Hastie MS, f. 134 wyling beguiling fauteless faultless wimpling twisting shaw small wood ***

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Burns wrote this song to accompany an Irish tune made familiar in his day as the music of a bawdy song. He explained this to George Thomson in September 1794, asking his correspondent, Do you know, my dear Sir, a blackguard Irish song called ‘OOnagh’s waterfall, or The lock that scattered OOnagh’s p-ss?’ Our friend Cunningham sings it delightfully.—The air is charming, & I have often regretted the want of decent verses to it.—It is too much, at least for my humble rustic Muse to expect that every effort of hers must have merit: still I think that it is better to have mediocre verses to a favorite air than none at all.—On this principle I have all along proceeded in the Scots Musical Museum; & as that publication is at its last volume, I intend the following song to the air I mentioned, for that work.—If it does not suit you as an Editor, but if you know the air, you may be pleased to have verses to it that you may sing it before the Ladies. (Letter 637, Letters II 306) In a later letter to Thomson he again referred to the song, commenting I dislike one thing, the name Chloris. I meant it as the fictitious name of a certain lady; but, on second thoughts, it is a high incongruity to have a Greek appellation to a Scotch Pastoral ballad…. What you once mentioned of ‘flaxen locks’ is just: they cannot enter into an elegant description of beauty. (Letter 689, ibid., 376) Thomson printed ‘She says she lo’es me best of all’ in SC no. 190 (1805). ‘A certain lady’ whose charms Burns wished to celebrate was Jean Lorimer, who inspired many of his later love songs.

Songs and notes

753

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262 O, saw ye my dear, my Philly? Tune: When she cam ben she bobbit

O, saw ye my dear, my Philly? O, saw ye my dear, my Philly? She’s down i’ the grove, she’s wi’ a new love, She winna come hame to her Willy. What says she, my dearest, my Philly? 5 What says she, my dearest, my Philly? She lets thee to wit that she has thee forgot, And for ever disowns thee her Willy.— O, had I ne’er seen thee, my Philly! O, had I ne’er seen thee, my Philly! 10 As light as the air, and fause as thou’s fair, Thou’s broken the heart o’ thy Willy. Currie (1800) Sent to Thomson in the autumn of 1794, a variant on no. 184, ‘O saw ye my dearie, my Eppie McNab?’, and lightly revised thereafter to take account of Thomson’s preference for the names Mary and Harry (Letters 644 and 647, Letters II 315, 329). On the air, see no. 191, ‘O when she came ben she bobbet fu’ law’.

Songs and notes

755

263 How lang and dreary is the night Tune: A Gaelic air

How lang and dreary is the night, When I am frae my dearie! I sleepless lye frae e’en to morn, Tho’ I were ne’er sae weary. I sleepless lye frae e’en to morn, 5 Tho’ I were ne’er sae weary! When I think on the happy days I spent wi’ you, my dearie; And now what lands between us lie, How can I be but eerie! 10 And now what lands, etc. How slow ye move, ye heavy hours,

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As ye were wae and weary! It was na sae ye glinted by, 15 When I was wi’ my dearie. It was na sae ye glinted, etc. SMM no. 175 (1788) dearie sweetheart e’en evening lanely lonely eerie gloomy sair sore This is the first of three songs on a theme suggested by a traditional fragment in David Herd’s collection,

O wat, wat—O wat and weary! Sleep I can get nane For thinking on my deary. A’ the night I wak, A’ the day I weary, Sleep I can get nane For thinking on my dearie. (Hecht 240) The best known of the group is no. 127, ‘Simmer’s a pleasant time’.

Songs and notes

757

264 Let not Woman e’er complain Tune: Duncan Gray

Let not Woman e’er complain Of inconstancy in love; Let not Woman e’er complain, Fickle Man is apt to rove: Look abroad through Nature’s range, 5 Nature’s mighty law is Change; Ladies would it not be strange Man should then a monster prove.— Mark the winds, and mark the skies;

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Oceans ebb, and oceans flow: 10 Sun and moon but set to rise; Round and round the seasons go: Why then ask of silly Man, To oppose great Nature’s plan? We’ll be constant while we can—15 You can be no more, you know. SC no. 48 (1798) Burns had been asked by Thomson to match traditional airs with English songs. Sending ‘Let not Woman e’er complain’ on 19 October 1794, he expressed his dissatisfaction, These English Songs gravel me to death.—I have not that command of the language that I have of my native tongue.—In fact, I think my ideas are more barren in English than in Scotish.—I have been at ‘Duncan Gray’, to dress it in English, but all that I can do is deplorably stupid. (Letter 644, Letters II 318) Source of music: SMM no. 160.

Songs and notes

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265 But lately seen in gladsome green Tune: East Indian air

But lately seen in gladsome green, The woods rejoic’d the day; Thro’ gentle show’rs the laughing flow’rs In double pride were gay: But now our joys are fled 5 On winter blasts awa, Yet maiden May in rich array Again shall bring them a’.

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But my white pow—nae kindly thowe Shall melt the snaws of Age; 10 My trunk of eild, but buss or beild, Sinks in Time’s wintry rage. Oh, Age has weary days! And nights o’ sleepless pain! Thou golden time o’ Youthfu’ prime, 15 Why comes thou not again! SMM no. 486 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 155 pow head thowe thaw snaws snows eild old age but buss or beild without bush or shelter Burns wrote to Thomson on 17 October 1794, I inclose you a Musical curiosity, an East Indian air, which you would swear was a Scotish one.—I know the authenticity of it, as the gentleman who brought it over is a particular acquaintance of mine.—Do, preserve the copy I send you, as it is the only one I have.—Clarke has set a Bass to it, & I intend putting it into The Musical Museum.—Here follow the verses I intend for it.

The auld man’s winter thought— (Letter 644, Letters II 319–20) Thomson set the song to a different air. Presumably, however, the tune printed by Johnson in the Museum is Burns’s ‘East Indian air’. Kinsley agrees with Dick in expressing scepticism about its provenance. He comments that ‘it has little of the Indies about it. It bears a resemblance to Chevy Chase’. Did Burns’s friend possibly confuse a tune carried out from Scotland with a native East Indian one?

Songs and notes

761

266 Sleep’st thou, or wak’st thou, fairest creature? Tune: De’il tak the Wars

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762

Sleep’st thou, or wak’st thou, fairest creature? Rosy morn now lifts his eye, Numbering ilka bud, which Nature Waters wi’ the tears o’ joy. Now to the streaming fountain 5 Or up the heathy mountain The hart, hind, and roe, freely wildly wanton stray; In twining hazel bow’rs His lay the linnet pours; The laverock to the sky 10 Ascends wi’ sangs o’ joy, While the sun and thou arise to bless the day. Phebus, gilding the brow of morning, Banishes ilk darksome shade, Nature gladdening and adorning; 15 Such, to me, my lovely maid. When frae my Chloris parted, Sad, chearless, broken-hearted, Then night’s gloomy shades o’ercast my sky: But when she charms my sight, 20 In pride of Beauty’s light; When through my very heart, Her beaming glories dart; ’Tis then—’tis then I wake to life and joy! SC no. 157 (1805) laverock lark One of the songs inspired by ‘Chloris’ (Jean Lorimer). In sending a draft of this song to Thomson in October 1794, Burns commented on how he had chosen to match words and music: I allow the first four lines of each Stanza to be repeated; but if you inspect the air, in that part, you will find that it, also, without a quaver of difference, is the same passage repeated: which will exactly put it on the footing of our other slow Scotish airs, as they, you know, are twice sung over. (Letter 644, Letters II 319)

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Thomson and he could not agree on a tune, and Burns offered a revision of The Lovers morning salute: ‘I could easily throw this into an English mould; but to my taste, in the simple and tender of the Pastoral song, a sprinkling of the old Scotish, has an inimitable effect’ (Letter 646, ibid., 324). The seventeenth-century air is in Oswald’s Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740) 26. Source of music: Durfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719) I 297.

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267 Lovely was she by the dawn Tune: Dainty Davie

CHORUS Lovely was she by the dawn,

Songs and notes

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Youthful Chloe, charming Chloe, Tripping o’er the pearly lawn, The youthful, charming Chloe. It was the charming month of May, 5 When all the flowers were fresh and gay, One morning, by the break of day, The youthful, charming Chloe; From peaceful slumber she arose, Girt on her mantle and her hose, 10 And o’er the flowery mead she goes, The youthful, charming Chloe. Lovely was she, etc. The feather’d people, you might see, Perch’d all around on every tree, In notes of sweetest melody 15 They hail the charming Chloe; Till, painting gay the eastern skies, The glorious sun began to rise, Out-rivaird by the radiant eyes Of youthful, charming Chloe. 20 Lovely was she, etc. SC no. 69 (1799) Another attempt to meet Thomson’s request for English songs. Burns wrote to him in November 1794, Despairing of my own powers to give you variety enough in English Songs, I have been turning over old Collections to pick out songs of which the measure is something similar to what I want, and with a little alteration, so as to suit the rhythm of the air exactly, to give you them for your Work. A Song…in Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany… I have cut down for an English dress to your ‘Daintie Davie’…. You may think meanly of this; but take a look at the bombast original, and you will be surprised that I have made so much of it.— (Letter 646, Letters II 323–4)

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As this comment suggests, the Burns song to the traditional air Daintie Davie is tighter and better constructed than the song he had to work with in the Tea-Table Miscellany (part II, to the tune The happy clown).

Songs and notes

767

268 Lassie wi’ the lintwhite locks Tune: Rothiemurche’s rant

CHORUS Lassie wi’ the lintwhite locks, Bonie lassie, artless lassie, Wilt thou wi’ me tent the flocks— Wilt thou be my dearie, O? Now Nature cleeds the flowery lea, 5 And a’ is young and sweet like thee, O, wilt thou share its joys wi’ me, And say thou’lt be my dearie, O? Lassie, etc. The primrose bank, the wimpling burn,

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The cuckoo on the milkwhite thorn, 10 The wanton lambs at rosy morn Shall glad thy heart, my dearie O. Lassie, etc. And when the welcome simmer shower Has chear’d ilk drooping little flower, We’ll to the breathing woodbine bower 15 At sultry noon, my dearie O. Lassie, etc. As Cynthia lights, wi’ silver ray, The weary shearer’s hameward way, Through yellow waving fields we’ll stray, And talk o’ love, my dearie O. 20 Lassie, etc. And should the howling wintry blast Disturb my lassie’s midnight rest, I’ll fauld thee to my faithfu’ breast, And comfort thee, my dearie O. Lassie, etc. SC no. 121 (1801) lintwhite white as flax tent guard dearie sweetheart cleeds clothes lea pasture wimpling twisting simmer summer fauld fold When he sent Thomson an early draft of this song, Burns felt it necessary to defend his liking for Strathspeys, in which he knew he differed from his editor: Not to compare small things with great, my taste in music is like the mighty Frederic of Prussia’s taste in painting: we are told that he frequently admired what the Connoisseurs decried, & always without any hypocrisy confest his admiration.—I am sensible that my taste in Music must be inelegant & vulgar, because people of undisputed & cultivated

Songs and notes

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taste can find no merit in many of my favorite tunes.—Still, because I am cheaply pleased, is that any reason why I should deny myself that pleasure?—Many of our Strathspeys, ancient & modern, give me most exquisite enjoyment, where you & other judges would probably be shewing signs of disgust.—For instance, I am just now making verses for Rothemurche’s Rant, an air which puts me in raptures: & in fact, unless I be pleased with the tune I can never make verses to it. Here I have Clarke on my side, who is a judge that I will pit against any of you.— Rothemurche, he says, is an air both original & beautiful; & on his recommendation I have taken the first part of the tune for a chorus, & the fourth or last part for the song.—I am but two stanzas deep in the work…(Letter 637, Letters II 306–7) In November he completed the song and described it to Thomson: This piece has at least the merit of being a regular pastoral; the vernal morn, the summer noon, the autumnal evening, and the winter night, are regularly rounded. If you like it, well; if not, I will insert it in the Museum. (Letter 646, Letters II 324) At one stage, the song was sent to Johnson; but in the end, it was Thomson who published it, although he meddled with the tune, and told Burns that he could ‘scarcely conceive a woman to be a beauty, on reading that she had lint-white locks’. The subject of the song was Jean Lorimer. The tune had appeared in Bremner’s Scots Reels (1759) 42, and in McGlashan’s Strathspey Reels (1780) 17.

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269 Ah, Chloris, since it may not be Tune: Major Graham

Songs and notes

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Ah, Chloris, since it may not be, That thou of love wilt hear; If from the lover thou maun flee, Yet let the friend be dear. Altho’ I love my Chloris, mair 5 Than ever tongue could tell; My passion I will ne’er declare— I’ll say, I wish thee well. Tho’ a’ my daily care thou art, And a’ my nightly dream, 10 I’ll hide the struggle in my heart, And say it is esteem. Aldine edition (1839) The opening of the song seems to recall Sedley’s song, ‘Ah! Chloris, cou’d I now but sit’, reprinted by Ramsay in The Tea-Table Miscellany I, and quoted by Burns in a letter of September 1794 (Letter 639, Letters II 312). The air Major Graham, familiar to Burns from Gow’s Strathspeys or Aird’s Airs (1782), is also used for no. 258, ‘O my Luve’s like a red, red rose’. Source of music: SMM no. 402.

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772

270 O Philly, happy be that day Tune: The Sow’s tail to Geordie

‘I once set about verses for [the air]’, Burns wrote to Thomson in September 1794, which I meant to be in the alternate way of a lover and his Mistress chanting together.—I have not the pleasure of knowing Mrs Thomson’s christian name, and yours I am afraid is rather burlesque for sentiment, else I had meant to have made you the hero and heroine of the little piece.—I have just written four stanzas at random [ll. 25–40], which I intend to have woven somewhere into, probably at the conclusion of the Song. (Letter 637, Letters II 308) Thomson liked the song, and commented, ‘Geordy, as you observe, is a name only fit for burlesque composition. Mrs. Thomson’s name (Katherine) is not at all poetical’ (Currie, IV 167). He suggested Jeanie and Jamie, which Burns did not adopt. Burns sent him the finished ‘Duet’ on 19 November, completed ‘this morning, though a keen blowing frost, in my walk before breakfast’ (Letter 647, Letters II 327). The air, which had been used for Jacobite satire, is in McGlashan’s Scots Measures (1781).

Songs and notes

773

Source of music: Niel Gow’s Second Collection (1788) 32. HE O Philly, happy be that day When, roving thro’ the gather’d hay, My youthfu’ heart was stown away, And by thy charms, my Philly. SHE O, Willy, ay I bless the grove 5 Where first I own’d my maiden love, Whilst thou did pledge the Powers above To be my ain dear Willy. HE As songsters of the early year Are ilka day mair sweet to hear, 10 So ilka day to me mair dear And charming is my Philly. SHE As on the brier the budding rose Still richer breathes, and fairer blows, So in my tender bosom grows 15 The love I bear my Willy. HE The milder sun and bluer sky, That crown my harvest cares wi’ joy, Were ne’er sae welcome to my eye As is a sight o’ Philly. 20 SHE The little swallow’s wanton wing, Tho’ wafting o’er the flowery spring, Did ne’er to me sic tidings bring, As meeting o’ my Willy. HE The bee, that thro’ the sunny hour 25 Sips nectar in the op’ning flower, Compar’d wi’ my delight is poor Upon the lips o’ Philly. SHE The woodbine in the dewy weet, When ev’ning shades in silence meet, 30 Is nocht sae fragrant or sae sweet As is a kiss o’ Willy. HE Let Fortune’s wheel at random rin, And fools may tyne, and knaves may win; My thoughts are a’ bound up in ane, 35 And that’s my ain dear Philly, SHE What’s a’ the joys that gowd can gie? I dinna care a single flie! The lad I love’s the lad for me, And that’s my ain dear Willy. 40 SC no. 160 (1805)

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271 Is this thy plighted, fond regard Tune: Ruffian’s rant

Is this thy plighted, fond regard, Thus cruelly to part, my Katy: Is this thy faithful swain’s reward— An aching broken hèart, my Katy.— CHORUS Canst thou leave me thus, my Katy, 5 Canst thou leave me thus, my Katy; Well thou know’st my aching heart,

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775

And canst thou leave me thus for pity.— Farewel! and ne’er such sorrows tear That fickle heart of thine, my Katy! 10 Thou mayest find those will love thee dear— But not a love like mine, my Katy.— Canst thou, etc. SC no. 70 (1799) Burns wrote to Thomson on 20 November 1794, I have framed a couple of English Stanzas, by way of an English song to ‘Roy’s wife.’—You will allow me that in this instance, my English corresponds in sentiment with the Scotish…. Well! I think this to be done in two or three turns across my room, & with two or three pinches of Irish blackguard, is not far amiss.—You see, I am determined to have my quantum of applause from Somebody. (Letter 647, Letters II 329) Burns had used the air Roy’s Wife or Ruffian’s rant for no. 58, ‘In coming by the brig o’ Dye’.

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272 Behold, my love, how green the groves Tune: On the cold ground

Behold, my love, how green the groves, The primrose banks how fair! The balmy gales awake the flowers, And wave thy flaxen hair. The lav’rock shuns the palace gay, 5

Songs and notes

777

And o’er the cottage sings: For Nature smiles as sweet, I ween, To shepherds as to kings. Let minstrels sweep the skillfu’ string, In lordly, lighted ha’; 10 The shepherd stops his simple reed, Blythe, in the birken shaw: The princely revel may survey Our rustic dance wi’ scorn, But are their hearts as light as ours 15 Beneath the milkwhite thorn? The shepherd, in the flowery glen, In shepherd’s phrase will woo; The courtier tells a finer tale, But is his heart as true: 20 These wild-wood flowers I’ve pu’d, to deck That spotless breast o’ thine; The courtier’s gems may witness love— But ’tis na love like mine. SC no. 201 (1818) lav’rock lark birken shaw birch wood pu’d pulled Burns offered this song, based on a suggestion by ‘Chloris’ (Jean Lorimer), because he disapproved of Thomson’s choice of a song by Crawford, ‘Love never more shall give me pain’ (SMM no. 82 (1787)) to accompany the air My Lodging is on the cold ground. This seventeenth-century English tune is in several English collections, including Playford’s Dancing Master (1665).

273 Contented wi’ little, and cantie wi’ mair Tune: Lumps of puddings

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Contented wi’ little, and cantie wi’ mair, Whene’er I forgather wi’ sorrow and care, I gie them a skelp as they’re creeping alang, Wi’ a cog o’ guid swats and an auld Scotish sang. I whyles claw the elbow o’ troublesome thought; 5 But Man is a soger, and Life is a faught: My mirth and gude humour are coin in my pouch, And my FREEDOM’s my Lairdship nae monarch dare touch. A towmond o’ trouble, should that be my fa’, A night o’ gude fellowship sowthers it a’; 10 When at the blythe end of our journey at last, Wha the deil ever thinks o’ the road he has past. Blind Chance, let her snapper and stoyte on her way; Be’t to me, be’t frae me, e’en let the jade gae: Come Ease, or come Travail; come Pleasure, or Pain; 15 My warst word is—‘Welcome and welcome again!’ Alloway MS; SC no. 65 (1799)

Songs and notes

779

cantie cheerful skelp smack alang along cog cup swats new small beer claw scratch soger soldier faught fight lairdship ownership towmond twelve month sowthers patches up deil devil snapper stumble stoyte lurch jade hussy warst worst Burns assured George Thomson that this song was a true self-portrait: Several people think that Allan’s likeness of me is more striking than Nasemith’s, for which I sat to him half a dozen times.—However there is an artist of very considerable merit, just now in this town, who has hit the most remarkable likeness of what I am at this moment, that I think ever was taken of anybody.—It is a small miniature; & as it will be in your town getting itself be-crystallized, &c. I have some thoughts of suggesting to you, to prefix a vignette taken from it to my song, ‘Contented wi’ little & cantie wi’ mair,’ in order the portrait of my face & the picture of my mind may go down the stream of Time together. (Letter 670, Letters II 356) The artist in question was Alexander Reid. His miniature of Burns is now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The seventeenth-century air Lumps o’ puddins is in the Dancing Master (1701) The Caledonian Pocket Companion (c. 1755) VII no. 4 and other collections. Source of music: adapted from The Caledonian Pocket Companion. Music text © David Johnson, 1993.

274 Now in her green mantle blythe Nature arrays Tune: There are few good fellows when Jamie’s awa

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Now in her green mantle blythe Nature arrays, And listens the lambkins that bleat o’er the braes, While birds warble welcomes in ilka green shaw; But to me it’s delightless—my Nanie’s awa.— The snawdrap and primrose our woodlands adorn, 5 And violets bathe in the weet o’ the morn; They pain my sad bosom, sae sweetly they blaw, They mind me o’ Nanie—and Nanie’s awa.— Thou lavrock that springs frae the dews of the lawn The shepherd to warn o’ the grey-breaking dawn, 10 And thou mellow mavis that hails the night-fa’, Give over for pity—my Nanie’s awa.— Come Autumn, sae pensive, in yellow and grey, And soothe me wi’ tydins o’ Nature’s decay: The dark, dreary Winter, and wild-driving snaw, 15 Alane can delight me—now Nanie’s awa.— SC no. 99 (1799)

Songs and notes

781

shaw little wood snawdrap snowdrop weet wet blaw blow lavrock lark snaw snow alane alone Burns wrote to Thomson in early December 1794, It is, I assure you, the pride of my heart to do any thing to forward, or add to the value of your book; & as I agree with you that the Jacobite song in the Museum, to ‘There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame,’ would not so well consort with Peter Pindar’s excellent love-song to that air, I have just framed for you the following…. How does this please you? (Letter 648, Letters II 331) The air, which Thomson did not use, had earlier inspired no. 159, ‘By yon castle wa’ at the close of the day’. It is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I no. 20, and other collections.

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275 When maukin bucks, at early f—s Tune: The tither morn

When maukin bucks, at early f—s, In dewy glens are seen, Sir; And birds, on boughs, take off their m—s, Amang the leaves sae green, Sir; Latona’s sun looks liquorish on 5 Dame Nature’s grand impètus, Till his p-go rise, then westward flies To r-ger Madame Thetis. Yon wandering rill that marks the hill, And glances o’er the brae, Sir, 10 Slides by a bower where many a flower Sheds fragrance on the dayddd, Sir;

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783

There Damon lay, with Sylvia gay, To love they thought no crime, Sir; The wild-birds sang, the echoes rang, 15 While Damon’s a-se beat time, Sir. First, wi’ the thrush, his thrust and push Had compass large and long, Sir; The blackbird next, his tuneful text, Was bolder, clear and strong, Sir: 20 The linnet’s lay came then in play, And the lark that soar’d aboon, Sir; Till Damon, fierce, mistim’d his a—, And f—’d quite out o’ tune, Sir. MMC Burns wrote to Thomson in January 1795 about this mock-pastoral: Some years ago, when I was young, and by no means the saint I am now, I was looking over, in company with a belle lettre friend, a Magazine Ode to Spring, when my friend fell foul of the recurrence of the same thoughts, and offered me a bet that it was impossible to produce an Ode to Spring on an original plan.—I accepted it, and pledged myself to bring in the verdant fields,—the budding flowers,—the chrystal streams,—the melody of the groves,—and a love-story into the bargain, and yet be original. Here follows the piece, and wrote for music too! (Letter 651, Letters II 335–6) The air The tither morn is in SMM no. 345 (1792). Burns comments that it came ‘originally from the Highlands. I have heard a Gaelic song to it, which I was told was very clever, but not by any means a lady’s song’ (Notes 59). The bawdy association no doubt prompted him to use it for the Ode to Spring.

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276 Is there for honest poverty? Tune: For a’ that, an’ a’ that

Burns’s most famous democratic political song, daring to speak up for the common man, attack social rank, and proclaim the coming of a new age of universal brotherhood. He sent it to Thomson in January 1795, with the comment A great critic, Aikin on songs, says that love and wine are the exclusive themes for song-writing.—The following is on neither subject, and consequently is no Song; but it will be allowed, I think, to be two or three pretty good prose thoughts, inverted into rhyme. (Letter 651, Letters II 336) Pope has the line ‘An honest Man’s the noblest work of God’, in his Essay on Man, IV 248. There is a general resemblance between Burns’s ‘prose thoughts’ and one part of Tom Paine’s argument in The Rights of Man, published only a few years before, in 1791– 2. Paine writes that Rank, talks about its fine blue ribbon like a girl, and shows its new garter like a child…. It is, properly, from the elevated mind of France that the folly of

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785

titles has fallen. It has outgrown the baby cloaths of Count and Duke, and breeched itself in manhood. France…has put down the dwarf, to set up the man…. For what we can foresee, all Europe may form but one great Republic, and man be free of the whole. (T.Paine, The Rights of Man, ed. Arthur Seldon (1958) 59–60, 211) The tune For a’ that, an’ a’ that has been continuously popular since the middle of the eighteenth century. Burns had previously used it for a different kind of radical song, ‘I am a Bard of no regard’, sung by the Bard in Love and Liberty—A Cantata, no. 37.

Is there for honest poverty That hings his head, an’ a’ that? The coward slave, we pass him by— We dare be poor for a’ that! For a’ that, and a’ that, 5 Our toils obscure, and a’ that, The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The man’s the gowd for a’ that.— What though on hamely fare we dine, Wear hoddin grey, and a’ that. 10 Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, A Man’s a Man for a’ that. For a’ that, and a’ that, Their tinsel show, and a’ that; The honest man, though e’er sae poor, 15 Is king o’ men for a’ that. Ye see yon birkie ca’d, a lord, Wha struts, and stares, and a’ that, Though hundreds worship at his word, He’s but a coof for a’ that. 20 For a’ that, and a’ that, His ribband, star and a’ that, The man of independant mind, He looks and laughs at a’ that.— A prince can mak a belted knight, 25 A marquis, duke, and a’ that; But an honest man’s aboon his might,

The songs of Robert burns

786

Gude faith he mauna fa’ that! For a’ that, and a’ that, Their dignities, and a’ that, 30 The pith o’ Sense, and pride o’ Worth, Are higher rank than a’ that.— Then let us pray that come it may, As come it will for a’ that, That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth 35 Shall bear the gree, and a’ that. For a’ that, and a’ that, Its comin yet for a’ that, That Man to Man the warld o’er, Shall brothers be for a’ that. 40 SC no. 163 (1805) hings hangs gowd gold hamely homely hoddin coarse homespun birkie conceited fellow coof fool aboon above mauna must not fa’ lay claim to gree come off best warld world

Songs and notes

787

277 Sweet fa’s the eve on Craigieburn Tune: Craigie-burn Wood

Sweet fa’s the eve on Craigieburn, And blythe awakes the morrow, But a’ the pride o’ Spring’s return Can yield me nocht but sorrow. I see the flowers and spreading trees, 5

The songs of Robert burns

788

I hear the wild birds singing; But what a weary wight can please, And Care his bosom wringing?— Fain, fain would I my griefs impart, Yet dare na for your anger; 10 But secret love will break my heart, If I conceal it langer. If thou refuse to pity me; If thou shalt love anither; When yon green leaves fade frae the tree, 15 Around my grave they’ll wither.— SC no. 32 (1798) On 19 October 1794 Burns asked Thomson to accept his first song to the air Craigie-burn Wood (no. 169, ‘Sweet closes the evening on Craigie-burn Wood’) offering this explanation: it is as great a favorite of [Clarke’s] as of mine.—The Lady on whom it was made, is one of the finest women in Scotland; & in fact (entre nous) is in a manner to me what Sterne’s Eliza was to him—a Mistress, or Friend, or what you will, in the guileless simplicity of Platonic love.— (Now don’t put any of your squinting construction on this, or have any clishmaclaver about it among our acquaintances)—I assure you that to my lovely Friend you are indebted for many of your best songs of mine.—Do you think that the sober, gin-horse routine of existence could inspire a man with life, & love, & joy—could fire him with enthusiasm, or melt him with pathos, equal to the geinius of your Book?—No! No!!!— Whenever I want to be more than ordinary in song…do you imagine I fast & pray for the celestial emanation?—Tout au contraire! I have a glorious recipe, the very one that for his own use was invented by the Divinity of Healing & Poesy when erst he piped to the flocks of Admetus.—I put myself in a regimen of admiring a fine woman; & in proportion to the adorability of her charms, in proportion you are delighted with my verses.— The lightning of her eye is the godhead of Parnassus, & the witchery of her smile the divinity of Helicon! (Letter 644, Letters II 315–16) Thomson accepted the song, but asked for a new chorus, claiming ‘O to be lying beyond thee dearie, is perhaps a consummation to be wished, but will not do in the company of ladies’ (Currie (1800) IV 185). Burns promised this, but added ‘if I can catch myself in a more than ordinary propitious moment, I shall write a new Craigieburnwood altogether—

Songs and notes

789

My heart is much in the theme’ (Letter 646, ibid., 326). The new song was sent to Thomson on 15 January 1795. Like no. 169 it had been inspired by Jean Lorimer.

The songs of Robert burns

790

278 Does haughty Gaul invasion threat? Tune: Push about the jorum

Does haughty Gaul invasion threat? Then let the louns beware, sir; There’s wooden walls upon our seas, And volunteers on shore, sir! The Nith shall run to Corsincon, 5 The Criffel sink in Solway, Ere we permit a foreign foe

Songs and notes

791

On British ground to rally! We’ll ne’er permit a foreign foe On British ground to rally! 10 O let us not, like snarling curs, In wrangling be divided, Till, slap! come in an unco loun, And wi’ a rung decide it: Be Britain still to Britain true, 15 Amang oursels united: For never but by British hands Maun British wrangs be righted. For never but, etc. The kettle o’ the Kirk and State, Perhaps a clout may fail in’t; 20 But deil a foreign tinkler loun Shall ever ca’ a nail in’t: Our fathers blude the kettle bought! And wha wad dare to spoil it, By Heavens, the sacrilegious dog 25 Shall fuel be to boil it! By Heavens, etc. The wretch that would a Tyrant own, And the wretch, his true sworn brother, Who would set the Mob above the throne, May they be damn’d together. 30 Who will not sing, God save the king; Shall hang as high’s the steeple; But while we sing, God save the king, We’ll ne’er forget the People. But while we sing, etc. SMM no. 546 (1803) ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ louns rascals tykes curs unco foreign rung stick, cudgel

The songs of Robert burns

792

amang among kettle cauldron clout patch deil devil tinkler tinker ca’ drive *** The French Convention menaced Britain in the early part of 1795. Burns wrote this song while helping to organize the Dumfries companies of volunteers against the threat of French invasion in the spring of 1795. He was no doubt the more eager to do this because only a few years before he had been accused of disloyalty to the government. He wrote to Patrick Miller on 8 March, ‘When you return to the country, you will find us all Sogers’ (Letter 659, Letters II 344). Burns would have had no difficulty in reconciling his witty, strongly democratic conclusion:

But while we sing, God save the king, We’ll ne’er forget the People with the expression of loyal British determination to keep out a foreign invader. The air Push about the jorum is in Campbell’s Reels (1778) 33 and Aird, Airs (1782) no. 111. Cedric Thorpe Davie comments that the song is an occasional piece which might be said to be a lampoon of a certain type of patriotic versifying, and a brilliant one at that, were it not that in its own right it is so magnificently superior to all its kind. The air belongs to the ‘British Grenadiers’ school, and is quite as fine a piece of work. Nowadays, of course, it can only be presented with a good deal of tonguein-cheek humour as a period-piece, but provided that there is no attempt to make a fool of it, a robust performance can be a very enjoyable experience. (‘Robert Burns, writer of songs’, in Donald A.Low, ed., Critical Essays on Robert Burns (1975) 173) Source of music: Aird.

Songs and notes

793

279 O, let me in this ae night

The songs of Robert burns

794

Tune: Will ye lend me your loom, lass?

CHORUS O, let me in this ae night, This ae, ae, ae night; O, let me in this ae night, I’ll no come back again, jo. O lassie, are ye sleepin yet, 5 Or are ye waukin, I wad wit? For love has bound me hand an’ fit, And I would fain be in, jo.

Songs and notes

795

O, hear’st thou not the wind an’ weet? Nae star blinks thro’ the driving sleet; 10 Tak pity on my weary feet, And shield me frae the rain, jo. The bitter blast that round me blaws, Unheeded howls, unheeded fa’s: The cauldness o’ thy heart’s the cause 15 Of a’ my grief and pine, jo. HER ANSWER

CHORUS I tell you now this ae night, This ae, ae, ae night, And ance for a’ this ae night, I winna let ye in, jo. 20 O, tell na me o’ wind an’ rain, Upbraid na me wi’ cauld disdain, Gae back the gate ye cam again, I winna let ye in, jo. The snellest blast at mirkest hours, 25 That round the pathless wan’rer pours, Is nocht to what poor she endures That’s trusted faithless man, jo. The sweetest flower that deck’d the mead, Now trodden like the vilest weed—30 Let simple maid the lesson read The weird may be her own, jo. The bird that charm’d his summer day, And now the cruel fowler’s prey; Let that to witless woman say 35 ‘The gratefu’ heart of man’, jo. Currie (1800)

The songs of Robert burns

796

fain gladly jo sweetheart, dear weet wet blaws blows pine sorrow gate way winna will not snellest coldest mirkest darkest weird fate *** A nocturnal dialogue song by Burns, which he was obliged to revise for Thomson. Lines 1–8 are based on a traditional song collected by David Herd (Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776) II 167–9), and already modified for SMM no. 311 (1792) while lines 9–12 adapt Herd’s third stanza. In the first version of Burns’s song, his conclusion also was close to Herd’s. Thomson preferred a subsequent version, as ‘it takes away the indelicacy that otherwise would have attached to his intreaties’ (Currie (1800) IV 225). Burns had to defend the girl’s reply on the grounds that she gives not the least reason to believe that she speaks from her own experience, but merely from observation of what she has seen around her.—but of all boring matters in this boring world, criticising my own works is the greatest bore (Letter 661, Letters II 346) at which point Thomson ceased to find fault with the song. (See also Letters 575, 577, 656, Letters II 228, 230, 340.) Burns wanted the chorus set to the high part of the air (Letter 575), and recommended the version of the air in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 21 in preference to that in SMM (Letter 569, ibid., 221–2). Thomson ignored his advice on both points.

Songs and notes

797

The songs of Robert burns

798

280 O wat ye wha’s in yon town Tune: I’ll gae nae mair to your town

CHORUS O wat ye wha’s in yon town, Ye see the e’enin Sun upon, The dearest maid’s in yon town, That e’enin Sun is shining on. Now haply down yon gay green shaw 5 She wanders by yon spreading tree;

Songs and notes

799

How blest ye flow’rs that round her blaw, Ye catch the glances o’ her e’e. O wat ye wha’s, etc. How blest ye birds that round her sing, And welcome in the blooming year, 10 And doubly welcome be the spring, The season to my Jeanie dear. O wat ye wha’s, etc. The sun blinks blyth on yon town, Amang the broomy braes sae green; But my delight in yon town, 15 And dearest pleasure, is my Jean. O wat ye wha’s, etc. Without my fair, not a’ the charms O’ Paradise could yield me joy; But gie me Jeanie in my arms, And welcome Lapland’s dreary sky. 20 O wat ye wha’s, etc. My cave wad be a lovers’ bow’r, Tho’ raging winter rent the air; And she a lovely little flower, That I wad tent and shelter there. O wat ye wha’s, etc. O sweet is she in yon town, 25 The sinkin Sun’s gane down upon: A fairer than’s in yon town, His setting beam ne’er shone upon. O wat ye wha’s, etc. If angry fate is sworn my foe, And suffering I am doom’d to bear; 30 I careless quit aught else below, But, spare me, spare me Jeanie dear. O wat ye wha’s, etc.

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800

For while life’s dearest blood is warm, Ae thought frae her shall ne’er depart, And she—as fairest is her form, 35 She has the truest kindest heart. O wat ye wha’s, etc. SMM no. 458 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ *** wat know town village, farm, town e’enin evening shaw small wood blaw blow aught anything ‘Jean’ in this song has been variously identified as Jean Armour, Jean Lorimer, and a girl Burns chanced to see while travelling in Annandale. Held up by deep snow at Ecclefechan while on excise business in February 1795, the poet is said to have admired Jeany Scot, daughter of the village postmaster. He certainly wrote from Ecclefechan to Thomson on 7 February about the air I’ll gae nae mair to yon town: in slowish time, it would make an excellent song—I am highly delighted with it; & if you should think it worthy of your attention, I have a fair Dame in my eye to whom I would consecrate it. (Letter 657, Letters II 341) He sent the chorus and a draft of lines 5–8 at that time. The completed song went to Thomson in April. Kinsley comments, ‘It seems likely that [no. 326] I’ll ay ca’ in by yon Town had already gone to Johnson for the SMM and that Burns, attracted by the air, then set himself to write a wholly new song to it’ (Commentary 1473).

Songs and notes

801

The songs of Robert burns

802

281 Long, long the night Tune: Ay, waukin, O

CHORUS Long, long the night, Heavy comes the morrow, While my soul’s delight Is on her bed of sorrow.— Can I cease to care, 5 Can I cease to languish, While my darling Fair Is on the couch of anguish.— Long, etc. Ev’ry hope is fled; Ev’ry fear is terror; 10 Slumber even I dread,

Songs and notes

803

Ev’ry dream is horror. Long, etc. Hear me, Powers Divine! Oh, in pity, hear me! Take aught else of mine, 15 But my Chloris spare me! Long, etc. Currie (1800) English verses for the air Ay, waukin O (cf. no. 127 ‘Simmer’s a pleasant time’), sent to Maria Riddell in March 1795, and in April to Thomson (Letters 658, 661, Letters II 343, 347). Another Jean Lorimer song. Source of music: SMM no. 382.

282 Wham will we send to London town Tune: For a that, an’ a that

The songs of Robert burns

804

Wham will we send to London town, To Parliament, and a’ that, Wha maist in a’ the country round, For worth and sense may fa’ that.— For a’ that, and a’ that, 5 Thro’ Galloway and a’ that, Whilk is the Laird, or belted Knight, That best deserves to fa’ that? Wha sees Kirouchtree’s open yett, And wha is’t never saw that, 10 Or wha e’er wi’ Kirouchtree met, That has a doubt of a’ that? For a’ that and a’ that, Here’s Heron yet for a’ that; The independant Patriot, 15 The Honest Man, and a’ that. Tho’ wit and worth, in either sex, Saint Mary’s Isle can shaw that; Wi’ Lords and Dukes let Selkirk mix, For weel does Selkirk fa’ that. 20 For a’ that and a’ that, Here’s Heron yet for a’ that; An independant Commoner Maun bear the gree and a’ that. To paughty Lordlings shall we jouk, 25 And it against the law, that: For even a Lord may be a gowk, Tho’ sprung frae kings and a’ that. For a’ that and a’ that, Here’s Heron yet for a’ that; 30 A Lord may be a lousy loun, Wi’ ribband, star and a’ that.— Yon beardless boy comes o’er the hills, Wi’s uncle’s gowd, and a’ that:

Songs and notes

805

But we’ll hae ane frae ‘mang oursels 35 A man we ken and a’ that.— For a’ that and a’ that, Here’s Heron yet for a’ that; We are na to the market come Like nowt and naigs and a’ that.—40 If we are to be knaves and fools, And bought and sauld and a’ that, A truant callan frae the schools It’s ne’er be said did a’ that. For a’ that, and a’ that, 45 Here’s Heron yet for a’ that; And Master Dicky, thou shalt get A gird and stick to ca’ that.— Then let us drink the Stewartry, Kirochtree’s Laird, and a’ that, 50 Our Representative to be, For weel he’s worthy a’ that. For a’ that, and a’ that, Here’s Heron yet for a’ that; A House o’ Commons such as he, 55 They wad be blest that saw that. Oxford Burns fa’ obtain, win whilk which yett gate bear the gree win first place, come off best paughty proud, insolent jouk bow gowk fool loun rascal wi’s with his gowd gold nowt cattle naigs ponies sauld sold

The songs of Robert burns

806

callan stripling gird boy’s hoop *** 19 Selkirk: Douglas Dunbar, 4th Earl of Selkirk (1722–94), whose hospitality at St Mary’s Isle in Galloway Burns had enjoyed in 1793. 33 beardless boy: Heron’s opponent, Gordon of Balmaghie, supported by his wealthy uncle Murray of Broughton. 49 Stewartry: Kirkcudbrightshire.

The first of the ‘Heron Ballads’, a group of electioneering songs written by Burns and distributed as broadsides in support of Patrick Heron of Heron and Kerroughtrie (?1736– 1803), successful Whig parliamentary candidate for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in 1795 against Thomas Gordon of Balmaghie. Heron was one of the founders of the bank of Douglas, Heron and Co., which failed in 1773. Burns met him while touring Galloway in June 1794, and warmly backed his campaign. He was re-elected in 1796 and 1802. ‘Wham will we send to London town’ is set to For a’ that, an’ a’ that, and exploits the popularity of no. 276, ‘Is there for honest poverty?’, written not long before.

Songs and notes

807

The songs of Robert burns

808

283 Fy, let us a’ to Kirkcudbright Tune: Fy, let us a’ to the bridal

Fy, let us a’ to K[irkcudbright], For there will be bickerin there; For M—‘s light horse are to muster, And O, how the heroes will swear! And there will be M—commander, 5 And G—the battle to win; Like brothers they’ll stand by each other, Sae knit in alliance and kin. And there will be black-nebbit Johnie, The tongue o’ the trump to them a’; 10 An he get na H-ll for his haddin, The Deil gets nae justice ava. And there will be K—’s birkie,

Songs and notes

809

A boy no sae black at the bane; But as to his fine Nabob fortune, 15 We’ll e’en let the subject alane. And there will be W—’s new Sh—ff, Dame Justice fu’ brawlie has sped; She’s gotten the heart of a B—, But Lord! what’s become o’ the head? 20 And there will be C—, Esquire, Sae mighty in C—’s eyes; A wight that will weather d-mn-tion, The Devil the prey will despise. And there will be—ses doughty, 25 New-christening towns far and near; Abjuring their democrat doings By kissin the a—of a Peer. And there will be K—, sae gen’rous, Whase honour is proof to the storm; 30 To save them from stark reprobation, He lent them his name to the Firm. But we winna mention R—stle, The body, e’en let him escape: He’d venture the gallows for siller, 35 An ‘twere na the cost o’ the rape. And where is our King’s L—L—t, Sae fam’d for his gratefu’ return? The billie is gettin his questions, To say in S—nt St-ph-n’s the morn. 40 And there will be Lads o’ the g-sp-l, M—, wha’s as gude as he’s true: And there will be B—’s Apostle, Wha’s mair o’ the black than the blue: And there will be Folk frae Saint Mary’s, 45 A house o’ great merit and note; The deil ane but honours them highly,

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810

Tho’ deil ane will gie them his vote. And there will be wealthy young Richard— Dame Fortune should hing by the neck 50 For prodigal thriftless bestowing— His merit had won him respect. And there will be rich brother Nabobs, Tho’ Nabobs, yet men of the first: And there will be C—ll—ston’s whiskers, 55 And Quintin, o’ lads not the warst. ***

And there will be Stamp-office Johnie, Tak tent how ye purchase a dram: And there will be gay C-ss-ncary, And there will be gleg Colonel Tam. 60 And there will be trusty Kirochtree, Whase honour was ever his law; If the Virtues were packt in a parcel His Worth might be sample for a’. And can we forget the auld Major, 65 Wha’ll ne’er be forgot in the Greys; Our flatt’ry we’ll keep for some other, Him, only it’s justice to praise. And there will be maiden K-lk-rran, And also B-rsk-m-n’s gude Knight; 70 And there will be roaring B-rtwhistle, Yet, luckily roars in the right. And there, frae the N-ddisd-le border, Will mingle the M-xw-lls in droves; Teugh Jockie, staunch Geordie, and Walie, 75 That greens for the fishes and loaves. And there will be L-g-n M-d-w-l, Sculdudry—and he will be there; And also the Wild Scot o’ Galloway, Sogering, gunpowder Bl—r. 80

Songs and notes

811

Then hey the chaste Int’rest o’ B—, And hey for the blessins ‘twill bring; It may send B—to the C—ns, In S-d-m ‘twould make him a King. And hey for the sanctified M—, 85 Our land wha wi’ Ch-p-ls has stor’d: He founder’d his horse amang harlots, But gied the auld naig to the L-rd! nebbit nosed an if haddin inheritance, possession Deil Devil ava at all birkie lively fellow bane bone brawlie handsomely wight fellow winna will not siller silver billie lad gude good hing hang gleg quick-witted auld old teugh tough greens yearns sogering soldiering naig horse *** 5–8

M—G—: Murray of Broughton and his nephew Gordon of Balmaghie, the Tory candidate.

9

black-nebbit Johnie: John Bushby, sheriff-clerk of Dumfries.

13– 16

K—s birkie: John Bushby’s brother William of Kempleton, who had returned from India a wealthy man or ‘Nabob’.

17– 20

John Bushby’s son John had recently been appointed sheriff of Wigtown.

21

C—: David Maxwell of Cardoness, described by Burns elsewhere as ‘a stupid, money-loving dunderpate of a Galloway laird’ (Letter 563, Letters II 214).

25– 8

—ses doughty: Sir William Douglas and his brother James. The town of Carlinwark was renamed Castle Douglas by royal warrant, and Newton Stewart was briefly renamed Newton

The songs of Robert burns

812

Douglas. 29

K—: John Gordon, Viscount Kenmure (1750–1840).

33– 6

R—stle: Walter Lawrie of Redcastle.

37– 40

our King’s L—L—t: George, Lord Garlies, Lord Lieutenant of Galloway and MP for Saltash from 1790–5.

40

S—nt St-ph-n’s: House of Commons.

42

M—: Rev James Muirhead (1742–1805), minister of Urr and landowner, who replied to Burns’s attack in scurrilous verses of his own.

43

B—’s Apostle: Rev. George Maxwell (1762–1807), minister of Buittle.

45

Saint Mary’s: family home of the Earl of Selkirk.

49

Richard: Oswald of Auchencruive (1771–1841), described by Burns as ‘an independantminded Country Gentleman, who dares to think and act for himself’ (Letter 659, Letters II 344).

53

brother Nabobs: D. and J.Anderson of St Germains.

55

C—ll—ston: William Copland of Collieston and Mollins.

58

Quintin: Quinton McAdam of Craigengillan.

57

Stamp-office Johnie; Burns’s friend John Syme of Ryedale (1755–1831), distributor of stamps in Dumfries since 1791.

59

C-ss-ncary: Colonel Mackenzie of Cassencarry.

60

Colonel Tam: Thomas Goldie of Goldielea.

61

Kirochtree: Patrick Heron, the Whig candidate.

65– 8

the auld Major: Patrick Heron’s brother Basil, who had recently been enlisted as a subscriber to the Scots Musical Museum (Letter 630, Letters II 300).

69

maiden K-lk-rran: Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran.

70

B-rsk-m-n’s gude Knight; Sir William Miller of Barskimming.

71

B-rtwhistle: Alexander Birtwhisle, provost of Kirkcudbright.

74– 6

the M-xw-lls ‘teugh Jockie’ of Terraughty; George Maxwell of Carruchan; and Wellwood Maxwell.

77– 8

L-g-n M-d-w-l, Sculdudry: Andrew McDoual of Logan, the seducer of Margaret Kennedy (cf. no. 27, note).

80

gunpowder Bl—r: Major Blair of Dunskey.

The second of the Heron Ballads is set to the air Fy, let us a’ to the Bridal, included in Craig’s Scots Tunes (1730) and other collections. It was associated with the song Blythesome Bridal in Watson’s Choice Collection and Orpheus Caledonius (1733) which is the model for Burns’s election ballad.

Songs and notes

813

284 ’Twas in the seventeen hunder year Tune: The children in the wood

’Twas in the seventeen hunder year O’ Christ and ninety-five, That year I was the waest man Of any man alive.— On March, the three and twentieth morn, 5 The sun raise clear and bright, But Oh, I was a waefu’ man Ere toofa’ o’ the night.— Earl G—y lang did rule this land With equal right and fame; 10 Fast knit in chaste and haly bands Wi’ B—n’s noble name.— Earl G—y’s man o’ men was I, And chief o’ B—n’s host: So twa blind beggars on a string 15 The faithfu’ tyke will trust.— But now Earl G—y’s sceptre’s broke, And B—n’s wi’ the slain; And I my ancient craft may try,

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814

Sen honestie is gane.—20 ’Twas on the bonie banks o’ Dee, Beside K—t towers, The St—t and the M—y there Did muster a’ their powers.— The M—y on his auld grey yad, 25 Wi’ winged spurs, did ride; That auld grey yad, a’ Nidsale rade, He lifted by Nid-side.— And there was B—ie, I ween, I’ th’ front rank he wad shine; 30 But B—ie had better been Drinking Madeira wine.— And frae Gl-nk-ns cam to our aid A Chief o’ doughty deed: In case that Worth should wanted be, 35 O’ K—re we had need.— And by our banner march’d M—d, And B—le was na slack, Whase haly Priest-hoods nane could stain, For wha can dye the BLACK.—40 And there, sae grave, Squire C—ss Look’d on till a’ was done: So, in the tower o’ C—ss A houlet sits at noon.— And there led I the B—y clan; 45 My gamesome billie WILL, And my son M—nd, wise as brave, My footsteps followed still.— The Douglas and the Heron’s name We set nocht to their score: 50

Songs and notes

815

The Douglas and the Heron’s name Had felt our might before.— Yet D—ses o’ weight had we, The pair o’ lusty lairds, For building cot-houses sae fam’d 55 And christening kail-yards.— And there R-dc-stle drew the sword That ne’er was stain’d wi’ gore; Save on a wanderer, lame and blind, To drive him frae his door.—60 ***

And last cam creeping C—l—n, Was mair in fear than wrath: Ae Knave was constant in his mind, To keep the Knave frae scathe.— waest most wretched toofa’ falling-to, beginning haly holy tyke cur, mongrel sen since auld old yad mare, old horse rade served, copulated with wad would houlet owl nocht nothing cot-houses cottages kailyards kitchen-gardens scathe harm 9

Earl G—y: John Stewart, Earl of Galloway.

11– 12

Fast knit… B—n’s noble name: Lady Euphemia Stewart, the fifth Earl’s daughter, married Alexander Murray of Broughton; Lady Catherine Stewart, daughter of the sixth Earl of Galloway, married James Murray of Broughton, her cousin.

19

my ancient craft: the Law.

25– 8

his auld grey yad: James Murray’s mistress, Grace Johnston of Carnsalloch, whose family crest was ‘a spur erect, or winged, argent’.

The songs of Robert burns

816

29

B—ie: Gordon of Balmaghie.

34

A Chief: John Gordon, Viscount Kenmure (Glenkens).

37

M—d: Rev. James Muirhead.

38

B—le: Rev. George Maxwell.

41

C—ss: Cardoness.

45– 52

the B—y clan: Bushby.

49

Douglas and Heron: a reference to the failed bank of 1773, Douglas, Heron and Co.

53– 6

D—ses: Sir William Douglas and his brother James.

57

R-dc-stle: Walter Sloan Lawrie of Redcastle.

61

C—l—n: William Copland of Collieston and Mollins.

‘Johnie B’s lament’, the third Heron Ballad, represents John Bushby, Sheriff Clerk of Dumfries, lamenting the defeat of the Earl of Galloway’s candidate, Gordon of Balmaghie, by Patrick Heron. The air, The Children in the Wood, takes its name from an Elizabethan ballad (M.J.C.Hodgart, The Ballads (1950) 142–3).

Songs and notes

817

The songs of Robert burns

818

285 Wha will buy my Troggin Tune: Buy broom besoms

Wha will buy my Troggin, Fine ELECTION WARE; Broken trade o’ Br[oughton] A’ in high repair. CHORUS Buy braw Troggin, 5 Frae the Banks o’ Dee! Wha want Troggin, Let them come to me. Here’s a noble Earl’s Fame and high renown, 10 For an auld sang— It’s thought the Gudes were stown. Buy braw Troggin, etc.

Songs and notes

819

Here’s the Worth o’ Br—, In a needle’s e’e: Here’s a reputation, 15 Tint by B—. Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here’s an HONEST CONSCIENCE, Might a Prince adorn, Frae the Downs o’ T—, —So was never worn. 20 Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here’s its Stuff and Lynin, C—ss’s Head; Fine for a Soger, A’ the wale o’ lead. Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here’s a little Wadset, 25 B—ttle’s scrap o’ Truth; Pawn’d in a gin-shop, Quenching haly drouth. Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here’s Armorial Bearings, Frae the Manse of—; 30 The crest, an aud crab-apple, Rotten at the core. Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here is Satan’s Picture, Like a bizzard-gled, Pouncing poor R—tle, 35 Sprawlin as a tade. Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here’s the Font where D— Stane and mortar names;

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820

Lately us’d at C—, Christening M—’s crimes. 40 Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here’s the Worth and Wisdom C—n can boast; By a thievish Midge They had been nearly lost, Buy braw Troggin, etc. Here is M—’s Fragments 45 O’ the Ten Commands; Gifted by BLACK JOCK —To get them off his hands. Buy braw Troggin, etc. ***

Saw ye e’er sic Troggin? If to buy ye’re slack, 50 HORNIE’s turning Chapman, He’ll buy a’ the Pack! Buy braw Troggin, Frae the Banks o’ Dee! Wha want Troggin, 55 Let them come to me. Troggin pedlar’s ware auld old Gudes goods stown stolen e’e eye tint lost soger soldier wale choice wadset something pledged drouth thirst bizzard-gled buzzard tade toad Hornie Satan

Songs and notes

821

3

Br—: Murray of Broughton.

16

B—: Gordon of Balmaghie, defeated by Heron at the 1795 election.

19

the Downs o’ T—: John Bushby’s villa, Tinwald Downs, outside Dumfries.

22

C—ss: David Maxwell of Cardoness.

26

B—ttle: Rev. George Maxwell of Buittle.

29–30

Armorial Bearings…: a further comment on the Rev. James Maxwell (cf. no. 280, note).

35

R—tle: Walter Sloan Lawrie of Redcastle.

37

D—: Sir William Douglas.

39

C—: Cally House, Gatehouse of Fleet.

40, 45–8 M—: Murray of Broughton. 42

C—n: William Copland of Collieston and Mollins.

47

Black Jock: John Bushby.

‘Wha will buy my Troggin’ is placed here with the earlier Heron Ballads, with which it shares many allusions, but it was not written until May–June 1796, the last month of Burns’s life. Patrick Heron was once again candidate for Kirkcudbright, opposing Montgomery Stewart, a younger son of the Earl of Galloway. Burns made use of the air Buy broom besoms, which is probably Northumbrian, in nos. 370 and 371.

The songs of Robert burns

822

Songs and notes

823

286 O stay, sweet warbling woodlark stay Tune: Loch Eroch side

O stay, sweet warbling woodlark stay, Nor quit for me the trembling spray, A hapless lover courts thy lay, Thy soothing fond complaining. Again, again that tender part, That I may catch thy melting art; 5 For surely that wad touch her heart Wha kills me wi’ disdaining. Say, was thy little mate unkind, And heard thee as the careless wind? 10 Oh, nocht but love and sorrow join’d, Sic notes o’ woe could wauken! Thou tells o’ never-ending care; O’ speechless grief, and dark despair: For pity’s sake, sweet bird, nae mair! 15 Or my poor heart is broken!

The songs of Robert burns

824

SC no. 26 (1798) wauken waken Burns was uncertain about a setting for this song. His son, James Glencairn Burns, has a note dated 17 December 1832 on the Adam MS: This is the original song written by my Father at the request of Mrs McMurdo to Lady Stuart’s Strathspey. It is now sung to the tune of Loch Erroch Side. This is the first fair copy of the song. I got it from Col. McMurdo son of Mrs. McM… The version Burns sent to Thomson is set to ‘“Where’ll bonie Ann lie”.—(or a still better tune, the rhythm of which it suits better than the drawling stuff in the Museum) Locheroch-side’. Burns also considered Johnie Cope, but noted ‘there is a squalidity, an absence of elegance, in the sentiment and expression of that air, that does not altogether suit the spirit & delicacy I have endeavourd to transfuse into the song’ (Letter 661, Letters II 347).

Songs and notes

825

287 Their groves o’ sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon Tune: Humors of Glen

The songs of Robert burns

826

Their groves o’ sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon, Where bright-beaming summers exalt the perfume; Far dearer to me yon lone glen o’ green breckan, Wi’ th’ burn stealing under the lang, yellow broom; Far dearer to me are yon humble broom bowers, 5

Songs and notes

827

Where the bluebell and gowan lurk lowly, unseen; For there, lightly tripping amang the wild flowers, A-list’ning the linnet, aft wanders my Jean. Tho’ rich is the breeze in their gay, sunny vallies, And cauld, Caledonia’s blast on the wave; 10 Their sweet-scented woodlands that skirt the proud palace, What are they? The haunt o’ the Tyrant and Slave. The Slave’s spicy forests, and gold-bubbling fountains, The brave Caledonian views wi’ disdain; He wanders as free as the winds of his mountains, 15 Save Love’s willing fetters, the chains o’ his Jean. SC no. 95 (1799) breckan bracken, coarse fern burn stream gowan ‘flower of the daisy, hawkweed, dandelion etc.’ (Burns) Sent to Thomson in April 1795, with the comment, ‘The Irish air, “Humors of glen” is a great favorite of mine, and as, except the silly verses in “The poor Soldier”, there are not any decent verses for it, I have written for it, as follows’ (Letter 661, Letters II 337). (The Poor Soldier is an opera by O’Keefe.) The air is in McLean’s Scots Tunes (1772) 31. Source of music: SMM no. 567.

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828

288 ’Twas na her bonie blue e’e was my ruin Tune: Laddie lie near me

’Twas na her bonie blue e’e was my ruin; Fair tho’ she be, that was ne’er my undoing: ’Twas the dear smile when naebody did mind us, ’Twas the bewitching, sweet, stown glance o’ kindness. Sair do I fear that to hope is denied me, 5 Sair do I fear that despair maun abide me; But tho’ fell Fortune should fate us to sever, Queen shall she be in my bosom for ever.

Songs and notes

829

Chloris I’m thine wi’ a passion sincerest, And thou hast plighted me love o’ the dearest! 10 And thou’rt the angel that never can alter, Sooner the sun in his motion would falter. Currie (1800) mind watch stown stolen Sent as a draft to Thomson in April 1795, in response to a request for a song to the air Laddie lie near me; ‘Laddie lie near me, I am busy with’ (Letter 661, Letters II 347). Thomson liked the verses, but judged them not equal to other contributions (Currie (1800) IV 231), and Burns withdrew the song as ‘neither worthy of my name, nor of your book’ (Letter 694, ibid., 380). A Jean Lorimer song.

The songs of Robert burns

830

289 How cruel are the parents Tune: John Anderson my jo, John

How cruel are the parents Who riches only prize, And to the wealthy booby Poor woman sacrifice: Meanwhile the hapless Daughter 5 Has but a choice of strife; To shun a tyrant Father’s hate, Become a wretched Wife.—

Songs and notes

831

The ravening hawk pursuing, The trembling dove thus flies, 10 To shun impelling ruin Awhile her pinions tries; Till of escape despairing, No shelter or retreat, She trusts the ruthless Falconer 15 And drops beneath his feet. SC no. 51 (1799) A revision for Thomson—who wanted English words for John Anderson my jo—of a song included in a number of eighteenth-century miscellanies:

How cruel is that parent’s care, Who riches only prizes, When finding out some booby heir, He thinks he wondrous wise is. While the poor maid, to shun her fate, And not to prove a wretch in state, To ’scape the blockhead she must hate, She weds where she despises. The harmless dove thus trembling flies, etc. (Centenary Burns (1896) III 468–9) Source of music: SMM no. 260. Cf. no. 142.

The songs of Robert burns

832

290 Mark yonder pomp of costly fashion Tune: De’il tak the Wars

Songs and notes

833

Mark yonder pomp of costly fashion, Round the wealthy, titled bride: But when compar’d with real passion, Poor is all that princely pride. What are their showy treasures, 5 What are their noisy pleasures, The gay, gaudy glare of vanity and art: The polish’d jewel’s blaze May draw the wond’ring gaze, And courtly grandeur bright 10 The fancy may delight, But never, never can come near the heart. But did you see my dearest Chloris, In simplicity’s array; Lovely as yonder sweet opening flower is, 15 Shrinking from the gaze of day. O then, the heart alarming, And all resistless charming, In Love’s delightful fetters, she chains the willing soul! Ambition would disown 20 The world’s imperial crown Even Av’rice would deny His worshipp’d deity, And feel thro’ every vein love’s raptures roll.— SC no. 157 (1805) Sent to Thomson in May 1795, as alternative words for the air, Deil tak the wars (cf. no. 266) (Letter 665, Letters II 351). A Jean Lorimer song. The seventeenth-century air is in Oswald’s Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740) 26. Source of music: see no. 266.

The songs of Robert burns

834

291 O wert thou, Love, but near me Tune: Will ye lend me your loom, lass?

CHORUS O wert thou, Love, but near me, But near, near, near me;

Songs and notes

835

How kindly thou wouldst chear me, And mingle sighs with mine, Love.— Forlorn, my Love, no comfort near, 5 Far, far from thee I wander here; Far, far from thee, the fate severe At which I most repine, Love.— O wert, etc. Around me scowls a wintry sky, Blasting each bud of hope and joy; 10 And shelter, shade, nor home have I, Save in these arms of thine, Love. O wert, etc. Cold, alter’d friends with cruel art Poisoning fell Misfortune’s dart;— Let me not break thy faithful heart, 15 And say that fate is mine, Love.— O wert, etc. But dreary tho’ the moments fleet, O let me think we yet shall meet! That only ray of solace sweet Can on thy Chloris shine, Love! 20 O wert, etc. Dalhousie MS; Currie (1800) Alternative verses to the air Let me in this ae night (no. 279), sent to Thomson in June 1795 with the comment, ‘I have written it within this hour: so much for the speed of my Pegasus; but what say you to his bottom?’ (Letter 672, Letters II 359; cf. Letter 676, Letters II 362). A Jean Lorimer song.

The songs of Robert burns

836

292 Now Spring has clad the grove in green

Burns sent ll. 9–32 to Maria Riddell in the summer of 1795, as ‘detached Stanzas I intend to interweave in some disastrous tale of a Shepherd “Despairing beside a clear stream”— L’amour, toujours l’amour!’ (Letter 674, Letters II 362). The completed song went to Alexander Cunningham, enclosed in a letter to Thomson, on 3 August (Letter 677, ibid., 364). Thomson set the song to Auld lang syne, which he renamed The hopeless lover.

Now Spring has clad the grove in green, And strewed the lea wi’ flowers: The furrow’d waving corn is seen Rejoice in fostering showers. While ilka thing in Nature join 5 Their sorrows to forego, O why thus all alone are mine The weary steps o’ woe.— The trout within yon wimpling burn That glides, a silver dart, 10 And safe beneath the shady thorn Defies the angler’s art: My life was ance that careless stream, That wanton trout was I; But Love wi’ unrelenting beam 15 Has scorch’d my fountains dry.—

Songs and notes

837

The little floweret’s peaceful lot In yonder cliff that grows, Which save the linnet’s flight, I wot, Nae ruder visit knows, 20 Was mine; till Love has o’er me past, And blighted a’ my bloom, And now beneath the withering blast My youth and joy consume.— The waken’d lav’rock warbling springs 25 And climbs the early sky, Winnowing blythe her dewy wings In morning’s rosy eye; As little reckt I sorrow’s power, Until the flowery snare 30 O’ witching love, in luckless hour, Made me the thrall o’ care.— O had my fate been Greenland snows, Or Afric’s burning zone, Wi’ man and nature leagu’d my foes, 35 So Peggy ne’er I’d known! The wretch whase doom is, hope nae mair, What tongue his woes can tell; Within whase bosom save Despair Nae kinder spirits dwell.—40 SC no. 91 (1799) lea pasture wimpling twisting lav’ rock lark

The songs of Robert burns

838

293 Last May a braw wooer cam down the lang glen Tune: The Lothian lassie

Last May a braw wooer cam down the lang glen, And sair wi’ his love he did deave me. I said, there was naething I hated like men— The deuce gae wi’ him, to believe me, believe me— The deuce gae wi’ him, to believe me! 5 He spak o’ the darts in my bonie black een, And vow’d for my love he was dying; I said, he might die when he liked for JEAN— The Lord forgie me for lying, for lying,

Songs and notes

839

The Lord forgie me for lying! 10 A weel-stocked mailen, himsel for the laird, And marriage aff-hand, were his proffers: I never loot on that I kend it, or car’d, But thought I might hae waur offers, waur offers, But thought I might hae waur offers. 15 But what wad ye think? in a fortnight or less, The deil tak his taste to gae near her! He up the lang loan to my black cousin, Bess, Guess ye how, the jad! I could bear her, could bear her, Guess ye how, the jad! I could bear her. 20 But a’ the niest week as I petted wi’ care, I gaed to the tryste o’ Dalgarnock; And wha but my fine, fickle lover was there, I glowr’d as I’d seen a warlock, a warlock, I glowr’d as I’d seen a warlock. 25 But owre my left shouther I gae him a blink, Least neebors might say I was saucy: My wooer he caper’d as he’d been in drink, And vow’d I was his dear lassie, dear lassie, And vow’d I was his dear lassie. 30 I spier’d for my cousin fu’ couthy and sweet, Gin she had recover’d her hearin, And how her new shoon fit her auld shachl’t feet; But, heavens! how he fell a swearin, a swearin, But, heavens! how he fell a swearin. 35 He begged, for Gudesake! I wad be his wife, Or else I wad kill him wi’ sorrow: So e’en to preserve the poor body in life, I think I maun wed him tomorrow, tomorrow, I think I maun wed him tomorrow. 40

The songs of Robert burns

840

sair sore deave deafen forgie forgive mailen small-holding laird landowner aff off loot let kend knew hae waur have worse deil devil loan grassy track, roadway jad hussy niest next tryste cattle-fair, market owre over shouther shoulder blink glance neebors neighbours spier’d asked fu’ couthy very loving gin if shoon shoes shachl’t shapeless, twisted by shuffling Burns sent this song to George Thomson in July 1795. He had a starting-point for writing it in a rough-and-ready traditional wooing ballad called The Lothian Lassie, which begins

The Queen o’ the Lothians cam cruisin to Fife, Fal del ral, lal de ral, lairo, To see gin a wooer wad tak her for life, Sing hey fal de ral, etc. But the narrative, characterization and comic language of ‘Last May a braw wooer’ are entirely his own. He develops the situation subtly, in racy colloquial Scots, with considerable insight into the character of the girl, who is motivated partly by love, but partly too by canny awareness that her suitor has made a good offer, and partly by a spirit of sheer mischief—nothing gives her more pleasure than to get the better of her cousin. Glimpses of different moments of the courtship also establish a comic identity for the ‘braw wooer’. Burns supplied Johnson with the tune, which was first printed in the Museum. Source of music: SMM no. 522.

Songs and notes

841

294 Why, why tell thy lover? Tune: The Caledonian Hunt’s delight

Why, why tell thy lover, Bliss he never must enjoy; Why, why undeceive him, And give all his hopes the lie? O why, while fancy, raptured, slumbers, 5 Chloris, Chloris all the theme, Why, why would’st thou cruel Wake thy lover from his dream? Dalhousie MS

The songs of Robert burns

842

Sent to Thomson on 3 July 1795 with the comment, ‘Such is the damned peculiarity of the rhythm of this air, that I find it impossible to make another stanza to suit it’ (Letter 673, Letters II 360). Thomson would rather have had ‘Bacchanalian words…but nevertheless, for what we have received, Lord make us thankful’ (Currie (1800) IV 252). A Jean Lorimer song. On the air, cf. no. 162.

295 This is no my ain lassie Tune: This is no my ain house

CHORUS This is no my ain lassie, Fair tho’ the lassie be; Weel ken I my ain lassie— Kind love is in her e’e. I see a form, I see a face, 5

Songs and notes

843

Ye weel may wi’ the fairest place: It wants to me the witching grace, The kind love that’s in her e’e. This is no, etc. She’s bonie, blooming, straight and tall; And lang has had my heart in thrall; 10 And ay it charms my very saul, The kind love that’s in her e’e. This is no, etc. A thief sae pawkie is my Jean To steal a blink, by a’ unseen; But gleg as light are lovers’ een, 15 When kind love is in the e’e. This is no, etc. It may escape the courtly sparks, It may escape the learned clerks; But weel the watching lover marks The kind love that’s in her e’e. 20 This is no, etc. SC no. 56 (1799) saul soul pawkie sly blink glance gleg quick Burns comments that Allan Ramsay was responsible for all but the first four lines of a song entitled This is no mine ain House, which had appeared in The Tea-Table Miscellany. He quotes ‘the old words’:

O, this is no my ain house, My ain house, my ain house; This is no my ain house, I ken by the biggin o’t. There’s bread and cheese are my door-cheeks,

The songs of Robert burns

844

Are my door-cheeks, are my door-cheeks; There’s bread and cheese are my door-cheeks And pan-cakes the riggin o’t. This is no my ain wean, etc. (Notes 43–4) In September 1793 the poet wrote to Thomson, ‘“This is no my ain house’ is a great favorite air of mine, and if you will send me your set of it, I shall task my Muse to her highest effort’ (Letter 588, Letters II 252). Almost two years later, though, he wrote that the air puzzles me a good deal.—In fact, I think to change the old rhythm of the first, or chorus part of the tune, will have a good effect.—I would have it something in the gallop of the following. (Letter 673, ibid., 360) The completed song was sent to Thomson on 3 August 1795 (Letter 676, ibid., 363). The air is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) II no. 32, and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) XI no. 8.

Songs and notes

845

296 O, bonie was yon rosy brier Tune: I wish my love were in a mire

O, bonie was yon rosy brier That blooms sae far frae haunt o’ man, And bonie she—and ah, how dear! It shaded frae the e’enin sun.

The songs of Robert burns

846

Yon rose-buds in the morning dew, 5 How pure amang the leaves sae green— But purer was the lover’s vow They witness’d in their shade yestreen. All in its rude and prickly bower That crimson rose how sweet and fair; 10 But love is far a sweeter flower Amid life’s thorny path o’ care.— The pathless wild, and wimpling burn, Wi’ Chloris in my arms, be mine; And I the warld nor wish nor scorn, 15 Its joys and griefs alike resign. SC no. 115 (1801) wimpling twisting warld world A song inspired by Jean Lorimer, sent to Alexander Cunningham on 3 August 1795, in a letter to Thomson, and not long afterwards to Maria Riddell (Letters 677, 681; Letters II 364, 372). Explaining to Thomson that Stephen Clarke would probably be too lazy to do anything with it, Burns wrote, ‘that song pleases me…if you like the song, it will go, as Scotish verses, to the air, “I wish my love was in a mire”’ (Letter 676, ibid., 363–4). The air, which prompted Burns to comment ‘I never heard more of the old words of this old song than the title’ (Notes 15), is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 5 and other collections. Thomson set Burns’s words to a different air.

Songs and notes

847

297 O, wat ye wha that lo’es me Tune: Morag

Burns had picked up the tune Morag while touring the Highlands in 1787 (cf. ‘Loud blaw the frosty breezes’, no. 57). He probably wrote this song in the summer of 1795, but was then delayed by the death of his only daughter Elizabeth in September, and by his own rheumatic fever in December, which brought him ‘to the borders of the grave’. A copy of the song went to Robert Cleghorn in January 1796. The song is a good example of how he gives English poetic conventions a ‘sprinkling of Scotch’.

O, wat ye wha that lo’es me, And has my heart a keeping? O, sweet is she that lo’es me

The songs of Robert burns

848

As dews o’ summer weeping, In tears the rosebuds steeping! 5 CHORUS O, that’s the lassie o’ my heart, My lassie, ever dearer; O, that’s the queen o’ womankind, And ne’er a ane to peer her! If thou shalt meet a lassie In grace and beauty charming, 10 That e’en thy chosen lassie, Erewhile thy breast sae warming, Had ne’er sic powers alarming. O that’s etc. If thou hast heard her talking, And thy attention’s plighted, 15 That ilka body talking But her, by thee is slighted; And thou art all delighted. O that’s etc. If thou hast met this Fair One, 20 When frae her thou hast parted, If every other Fair One, But her, thou hast deserted, And thou art broken hearted. O, that’s the lassie o’ my heart, 25 My lassie, ever dearer: O, that’s the queen o’ womankind, And ne’er a ane to peer her. SC no. 67 (1799) wat know ilka body everybody

Songs and notes

849

298 Lassie, lend me your braw hemp heckle Tune: The Bob o’ Dumblane

Lassie, lend me your braw hemp heckle, And I’ll lend you my thrippling-kame; My heckle is broken, it canna be gotten, And we’ll gae dance the Bob o’ Dumblane.

The songs of Robert burns

850

Twa gaed to the wood, to the wood, to the wood, 5 Twa gaed to the wood, three cam hame: An’t be na weel bobbit, weel bobbit, weel bobbit, An’t be na weel bobbit, we’ll bob it again. Watson MS hemp heckle flax-comb thrippling-kame comb for separating bolls of flax from the stem an’t if it bobbit danced Burns gave Johnson this song in the autumn of 1794, for the fifth volume of the Museum (Letter 684, Letters II 368), but it was not printed, probably because of its bawdy metaphors, which include the title and the phrases ‘hemp heckle’ and ‘thrippling-kame’. The air is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) no. 45, with words from Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany:

Lassie, lend me your braw hemp Heckle, And I’ll lend you my thripling Kame; For fainness, Deary, I’ll gar ye keckle, If ye’ll go dance the Bob o’ Dumblane… ‘The original’, commented Burns, ‘I learned on the spot, from my Hostess in the principal Inn there’ (i.e. in Dunblane in 1787). (Notes: Edinburgh University Library, Laing MSS; Burns Chronicle (1922) 5–6). Source of music: derived from Orpheus Caledonius. Music text © David Johnson, 1993.

Songs and notes

851

299 Dire was the hate at old Harlaw Tune: The Dragon of Wantley

Dire was the hate at old Harlaw That Scot to Scot did carry; And dire the discord Langside saw, For beauteous, hapless Mary: But Scot with Scot ne’er met so hot, 5 Or were more in fury seen, Sir, Than ‘twixt Hal and Bob for the famous job— Who should be the Faculty’s Dean, Sir.—

The songs of Robert burns

852

This Hal for genius, wit and lore Among the first was number’d; 10 But pious Bob, ‘mid Learning’s store, Commandment the tenth remember’d. Yet simple Bob the victory got, And wan his heart’s desire; Which shews that Heaven can boil the pot 15 Though the devil piss in the fire.— Squire Hal besides had in this case Pretensions rather brassy, For talents to deserve a place Are qualifications saucy; 20 So their Worships of the Faculty, Quite sick of Merit’s rudeness, Chose one who should owe it all, d’ye see, To their gratis grace and goodness.— As once on Pisgah purg’d was the sight 25 Of a son of Circumcision, So may be, on this Pisgah height, Bob’s purblind, mental vision: Nay, Bobby’s mouth may be opened yet Till for eloquence you hail him, 30 And swear he has the angel met That met the ass of Balaam.— In your heretic sins may ye live and die, Ye heretic Eight and thirty! But accept, ye Sublime Majority, 35 My congratulations hearty.— With your Honors and a certain King In your servants this is striking— The more incapacity they bring, The more they’re to your liking.—40 Cromek, Reliques (1808) (Lacks final stanza, cf. Egerton MS (1656) f. 19) ***

Songs and notes

853

Written not long after 12 January 1796, when Robert Dundas was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, in preference to Burns’s friend Henry Erskine. Henry Cockburn comments on Robert Dundas of Arniston (1758–1819), Lord Advocate from 1789, that he became in public affairs the most important person in this country… Resistance of revolution, which Dundas deemed his main public duty, implied the maintenance of his party, and of the Scotch supremacy of his family. (Memorials (1946) 99) Burns may have wanted to pay off an old score. In 1787 he wrote to Dundas, enclosing a eulogy of his father, the late Lord President. Dundas acknowledged neither poem nor letter (see Letter 441, Letters II 80). The English air is in Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, ed. T.D’Urfey (1719–20) III no. 10. 1

old Harlaw. battle near Aberdeen in 1411 between Donald Lord of the Isles and the Earl of Mar, the subject of a famous ballad.

3

Langside: near Glasgow; Mary Queen of Scots was defeated there in 1568.

25 Pisgah: Deuteronomy iii 27. 34 Ye heretic Eight and thirty: Dundas’s opponents.

The songs of Robert burns

854

Songs and notes

855

300 Awa’ wi’ your witchcraft o’ Beauty’s alarms Tune: Balin a mone

Awa’ wi’ your witchcraft o’ Beauty’s alarms, The slender bit beauty you grasp in your arms,

The songs of Robert burns

856

O, gie me the lass that has acres o’ charms! O, gie me the lass wi’ the weel-stockit farms! CHORUS Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher, 5 Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher, Then hey, for a lass wi’ a tocher; The nice yellow guineas for me! Your beauty’s a flower, in the morning that blows, And withers the faster the faster it grows; 10 But the rapturous charm o’ the bonie green knowes, Ilk Spring they’re new deckit wi’ bonie white yowes. Then hey, etc. And e’en when this Beauty your bosom has blest, The brightest o’ beauty may cloy, when possest; But the sweet yellow darlings wi’ Geordie imprest, 15 The langer ye hae them,—the mair they’re carest! Then hey, etc. SC no. 100 (1799) weel-stockit well-stocked tocher dowry knowes mounds yowes ewes e’en even Possibly suggested by a song in The Tea-Table Miscellany entitled ‘Lass with a Lump of Land’:

Gi’e me a lass with a lump of land, And we for life shall gang the gither, Though daft or wise, I’ll never demand, Or black or fair, it maks na whether. I’m aff with wit, and beauty will fade,

Songs and notes

857

And bloom alane is na worth a shilling: But she that’s rich, her market’s made, For ilka charm about her is killing… Love tips his arrows with woods and parks, And castles, and riggs, and muirs, and meadows, And naithing can catch our modern sparks, But well-tocher’d lasses, or jointur’d widows. Burns sent ‘Awa’ wi’ your witchcraft o’ Beauty’s alarms’ to Thomson in February 1796. Thomson had proposed gathering Irish airs in one volume, and Burns commented enthusiastically, The twenty-five Irish Songs, in one number, is a business that you will find your account in more than anything.—I shall chearfully undertake the task of finding verses for them. I have already, you know, equipt three Irish airs with words, and the other day I strung up a kind of rhapsody to another Hibernian melody which I admire much. (Letter 689, Letters II 376) Thomson liked the song, commenting, ‘With you the subject is something new indeed. It is the first time I have seen you debasing the god of soft desire, into an amateur of acres and guineas’ (Currie (1800) IV 256).

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Songs and notes

859

301 Here’s a health to ane I lo’e dear Tune: Here’s a health to them that’s awa

CHORUS Here’s a health to ane I lo’e dear, Here’s a health to ane I lo’e dear; Thou art sweet as the smile when fond lovers meet, And soft as their parting tear—Jessy. Although thou maun never be mine, 5 Although even hope is denied; ’Tis sweeter for thee despairing, Than aught in the warld beside—Jessy.

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Here’s a health, etc. I mourn thro’ the gay, gaudy day, As, hopeless, I muse on thy charms; 10 But welcome the dream o’ sweet slumber, For then I am lockt in thy arms—Jessy. Here’s a health, etc. SC no. 75 (1799) Sent to Thomson in May 1796 with the comment ‘I have only begun with it’ (Letter 694, Letters II 379). A copy went to Alexander Cunningham on 12 July as ‘the last I made or probably will make for some time’ (Letter 704, ibid., 388). The subject of the song was Jessy Lewars (1778–1855), sister of John Lewars, Burns’s colleague in the Excise. The family lived in Mill Vennel, Dumfries, near Burns; and Jessy nursed the poet in his final illness. The air, ‘long admired’ by Burns (Letter 704), is the same as that at no. 219 (cf. also no. 193).

Songs and notes

861

302 O, wert thou in the cauld blast Tune: Lenox love to Blantyre

O, wert thou in the cauld blast On yonder lea, on yonder lea, My plaidie to the angry airt, I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee; Or did Misfortune’s bitter storms 5 Around thee blaw, around thee blaw, Thy bield should be my bosom, To share it a’, to share it a’. Or were I in the wildest waste,

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862

Sae black and bare, sae black and bare, 10 The desart were a paradise, If thou wert there, if thou wert there. Or were I monarch o’ the globe, Wi’ thee to reign, wi’ thee to reign; The brightest jewel in my crown, 15 Wad be my queen, wad be my queen. Currie 2nd edn (1801) lea pasture plaidie cloak airt direction blaw blow bield protection On this song, see Introduction, pp. 31–2. Lenox love to Blantyre occurs in Margaret Sinkler’s MS (1710), in Stewart’s Reels (1761) and in other collections of reels.

303 Grim Grizzel was a mighty Dame

Grim Grizzel was a mighty Dame Weel kend on Cluden-side: Grim Grizzel was a mighty Dame O’ meikle fame and pride.

Songs and notes

863

When gentles met in gentle bowers 5 And nobles in the ha’, Grim Grizzel was a mighty Dame, The loudest o’ them a’. Where lawless Riot rag’d the night And Beauty durst na gang, 10 Grim Grizzel was a mighty Dame Wham nae man e’er wad wrang. Nor had Grim Grizzel skill alane What bower and ha’ require; But she had skill, and meikle skill, 15 In barn and eke in byre. Ae day Grim Grizzel walkèd forth, As she was wont to do, Alang the banks o’ Cluden fair, Her cattle for to view. 20 The cattle sh—o’er hill and dale As cattle will incline, And sair it grieved Grim Grizzel’s heart Sae muckle muck to tine. And she has ca’d on John o’ Clods, 25 Of her herdsmen the chief, And she has ca’d on John o’ Clods, And tell’d him a’ her grief:— ‘Now wae betide thee, John o’ Clods! I gie thee meal and fee, 30 And yet sae meikle muck ye tine Might a’ be gear to me! ‘Ye claut my byre, ye sweep my byre, The like was never seen; The very chamber I lie in 35

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Was never half sae clean. ‘Ye ca’ my kye adown the loan And there they a’ discharge: My Tammy’s hat, wig, head and a’ Was never half sae large! 40 ***

‘But mind my words now, John o’ Clods, And tent me what I say: My kye shall sh—ere they gae out, That shall they ilka day. ‘And mind my words now, John o’ Clods, 45 And tent now wha ye serve; Or back ye’se to the Colonel gang, Either to steal or starve.’ Then John o’ Clods he lookèd up And syne he lookèd down; 50 He lookèd east, he lookèd west, He lookèd roun’ and roun’. His bonnet and his rowantree club Frae either hand did fa’; Wi’ lifted een and open mouth 55 He naething said at a’. At length he found his trembling tongue, Within his mouth was fauld:— ‘Ae silly word frae me, madam, Gin I daur be sae bauld. 60 ‘Your kye will at nae bidding sh—, Let me do what I can; Your kye will at nae bidding sh— Of onie earthly man. ‘Tho’ ye are great Lady Glaur-hole, 65

Songs and notes

865

For a’ your power and art Tho’ ye are great Lady Glaur-hole, They winna let a fart.’ ‘Now wae betide thee, John o’ Clods! An ill death may ye die! 70 My kye shall at my bidding sh—, And that ye soon shall see.’ Then she’s ta’en Hawkie by the tail, And wrung wi’ might and main, Till Hawkie rowted through the woods 75 Wi’ agonising pain. ‘Sh—, sh—, ye bitch,’ Grim Grizzel roar’d, Till hill and valley rang; ‘And sh—, ye bitch,’ the echoes roar’d Lincluden wa’s amang. 80 Centenary Burns (1896) II 459–61 byre cowshed sair sore tine lose ca’d called tell’d told wae woe gear property, money claut clean out mind remember tent heed kye cattle ye’se you shall syne then fauld enclosed gin if bauld bold Glaur mud winna will not rowted bellowed A ballad parody dating from Burns’s Dumfriesshire period. It is followed in the MS by a note:

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Passing lately through Dunblane, while I stopped to refresh my horse, the following ludicrous epitaph, which I pickt up from an old tombstone among the ruins of the ancient Abbey, struck me particularly, being myself a native of Dumfriesshire:

Here lyes with Dethe auld Grizzel Grimme Lincluden’s ugly witche. O Dethe, an’ what a taste hast thou Cann lye with siche a bitche! (Centenary Burns (1896) II 459) Burns may possibly have written his ballad about a Mrs Young, formerly Mrs Grizzel Craik, the widow of Thomas Young of Lincluden College. The ruin of Lincluden Abbey stands beside the Nith outside Dumfries. No tune is named.

304 I murder hate by field or flood

I murder hate by field or flood, Tho’ glory’s name may screen us; In wars at home I’ll spend my blood, Life-giving wars of Venus: The deities that I adore 5 Are social Peace and Plenty; I’m better pleased to make one more, Than be the death of twenty.

Songs and notes

867

I would not die like Socrates, For all the fuss of Plato; 10 Nor would I with Leonidas, Nor yet would I with Cato: The Zealots of the Church, or State, Shall ne’er my mortal foes be, But let me have bold *ZIMRI’s fate, 15 Within the arms of COSBI! Glenriddell MS *Vide Numbers Chap. 25th Verses 8th–15th—

Written on the window of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries 9– 12

Socrates ended his life by agreeing to drink hemlock; Leonidas preferred to die for his country rather than rule over it; Cato committed suicide rather than submit to Caesar.

305 You’re welcome, Willie Stewart Tune: Ye’re welcome Charlie Stewart

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CHORUS You’re welcome, Willie Stewart, You’re welcome, Willie Stewart; There’s ne’er a flower that blooms in May That’s half sae welcome’s thou art. Come, bumpers high, express your joy, 5 The bowl we maun renew it; The tappit-hen gae bring her ben, To welcome Willie Stewart. May foes be strang, and friends be slack, Ilk action may he rue it; 10 May woman on him turn her back,

Songs and notes

869

That wrangs thee, Willie Stewart. J.G.Lockhart, Life of Burns (1829) tappit-hen drinking vessel with a knobbed lid ben in Written on a tumbler for William Stewart, factor of the estate of Closeburn in Dumfriesshire. His sister was landlady of Brownhill Inn, near Thornhill on the Nith. ‘The landlady being very wroth at what she considered the disfigurement of her glass, a gentleman present appeased her, by paying down a shilling, and carried off the relic’ (J.G.Lockhart, Life of Burns (1829)). The tumbler later passed into the possession of Sir Walter Scott, and can be seen at Abbotsford.

306 The lovely lass of Inverness Tune: The lovely lass of Inverness

The songs of Robert burns

The lovely lass of Inverness, Nae joy nor pleasure can she see; For e’en and morn she cries, ‘alas!’ And ay the saut tear blins her e’e: ‘Drumossie Moor, Drumossie day—5 A waefu’ day it was to me! For there I lost my father dear, My father dear and brethren three.’ ‘Their winding-sheet the bludy clay,

870

Songs and notes

871

Their graves are gowing green to see; 10 And by them lies the dearest lad That ever blest a woman’s e’e! Now wae to thee, thou cruel lord, A bludy man I trow thou be; For mony a heart thou has made sair 15 That ne’er did wrang to thine or thee!’ SMM no. 401 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 113r e’en evening saut salt blins blinds waefu’ woeful trow believe sair sore wrang wrong Burns’s revision of a traditional song about the Jacobite defeat in 1746 at Culloden (Drumossie moor) by the Hanoverian forces of the Duke of Cumberland. The Hastie MS has a holograph note by Burns: ‘The following are the old words of this song, and I think would suit best to set to the music’. Lines 9–16 show the kind of finish and purity associated with Burns’s revision of traditional material. The air, by James Oswald, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I no. 9.

307 As I stood by yon roofless tow’r Tune: Cumnock Psalms

The songs of Robert burns

As I stood by yon roofless tow’r, Where the wa’-flower scents the dewy air, Where the houlet mourns in her ivy bower, And tells the midnight moon her care:

872

Songs and notes

873

CHORUS A lassie all alone was making her moan, 5 Lamenting our lads beyond the sea; ‘In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honor’s gane an’ a’, And broken-hearted we maun die.’ The winds were laid, the air was still, The stars they shot alang the sky; 10 The tod was howling on the hill, And the distant-echoing glens reply. A lassie, etc. The burn, adown its hazelly path, Was rushing by the ruin’d wa’, Hasting to join the sweeping Nith 15 Whase roarings seem’d to rise and fa’. A lassie, etc. The cauld, blae north was streaming forth Her lights, wi’ hissing, eerie din; Athort the lift they start and shift, Like Fortune’s favors, tint as win. 20 A lassie, etc. Now, looking over firth and fauld, Her horn the pale-fac’d Cynthia rear’d, When, lo, in form of Minstrel auld, A stern and stalwart ghaist appear’d. A lassie, etc. And frae his harp sic strains did flow, 25 Might rous’d the slumbering Dead to hear; But oh, it was a tale of woe, As ever met a Briton’s ear. A lassie, etc. He sang wi’ joy his former day, He weeping wail’d his latter times: 30

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But what he said it was nae play, I winna ventur’t in my rhymes. A lassie, etc. SMM no. 405 (1796), signed B; ‘Recitative, Written by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 115 houlet owl tod fox burn stream blae bitter eerie frightening athort across lift sky fauld fold ghaist spirit winna will not *** The ‘roofless tower’ is Lincluden Abbey, which stands on the angle of land at the junction of the Cluden with the Nith at Maxwelltown, on the northern outskirts of Dumfries. It was the burial place of Margaret, daughter of Robert III and wife of Archibald Earl of Douglas. Part of the chancel and nave were all that remained in Burns’s time. The tune which Burns used for this song was known as The grey goose and the gled from an old erotic song of that name. Stephen Clarke transcribed the music for Burns, who wrote to George Thomson in September 1794, enclosing a copy of the bawdy verses: Mr Clarke says that the tune is positively an old Chant of the ROMISH CHURCH; which corroborates the old tradition, that at the Reformation, the Reformers burlesqued much of the old Church Music with setting them to bawdy verses. As a farther proof, the common name for this song is, Cumnock Psalms. (Letter 637, Letters II 308) What Burns has done in ‘As I stood by yon roofless tower’ is to build on a traditional refrain a song about the sadness of war. As Kinsley notes, the ghostly minstrel who appears in line 23 is a familiar figure in eighteenth-century ‘Romantic’ poetry.

Songs and notes

875

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876

308 The Robin cam to the Wren’s nest Tune: The wren’s nest

The Robin cam to the Wren’s nest And keekit in, and keekit in; O, weel’s me on your auld pow, Wad ye be in, wad ye be in? Ye’se ne’er get leave to lie without, 5 And I within, and I within; As lang’s I hae an auld clout To rowe you in, to rowe you in.

Songs and notes

877

SMM no. 406 (1796) keekit looked pow head ye’se you shall clout patch rowe wrap Clarke noted on his manuscript of the words and music, ‘The tune is only a bad set of “Johnny’s Gray Breeks”. I took it down from Mrs. Burns’s singing. There are more words, I believe. You must apply to Burns’. But Johnson has written below, ‘there are no more words’ (Stenhouse (1853) 365). The verse form resembles that of no. 302, ‘O, wert thou in the cauld blast’.

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309 There’s sax eggs in the pan, gudeman Tune: O, an ye were dead, Guidman

Songs and notes

879

CHORUS O an ye were dead gudeman, A green turf on your head, gudeman, I wad bestow a widowhood Upon a rantin Highlandman. There’s sax eggs in the pan, gudeman, 5 There’s sax eggs in the pan, gudeman; There’s ane to you, and twa to me, And three to our John Highlandman. O an ye were dead, etc. A sheep-head’s in the pot, gudeman, A sheep-head’s in the pot, gudeman; 10 The flesh to him the broo to me, An the horns become your brow, gudeman. CHORUS TO THE LAST VERSE— Sing round about the fire wi’ a rung she ran, An round about the fire wi’ a rung she ran: Your horns shall tie you to the staw, 15 And I shall bang your hide, gudeman. SMM no. 409 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 112 an if gudeman husband rantin riotous sax six broo soup rung stick, cudgel staw stall Burns’s revision of a traditional song in David Herd, ed. Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776) II 207. Herd’s chorus runs

I wish that you were dead, goodman, And a green sod for your head, goodman, That I might ware my widowhead

The songs of Robert burns

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Upon a ranting highlandman. Burns’s lines 5–8 are as in Herd. Lines 9–12 are a revision of

There’s beef into the pat, goodman, There’s beef into the pat, goodman, The banes for you, and the brew for me, And the beef for our JOHN HIGHLANDMAN. Otherwise, the two songs differ in their content. Burns had used the air for ‘A Highland lad my love was born’ in Love and Liberty—A Cantata. It occurs in the McFarlan MS (1740) and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV no. 24.

Songs and notes

881

310 O I forbid you, maidens a’ Tune: Tam Lin

O I forbid you, maidens a’, That wear gowd on your hair, To come or gae by Carterhaugh, For young Tam Lin is there. There’s nane that gaes by Carterhaugh 5 But they leave him a wad; Either their rings, or green mantles Or else their maidenhead. Janet has belted her green kirtle, A little aboon her knee, 10 And she has broded her yellow hair A little aboon her bree; And she’s awa to Carterhaugh As fast as she can hie, When she came to Carterhaugh 15 Tam-Lin was at the well,

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And there she fand his steed standing But away was himsel. She had na pu’d a double rose A rose but only twa, 20 Till up then started young Tam-Lin, Says, Lady, thou’s pu’ nae mae. Why pu’s thou the rose, Janet, And why breaks thou the wand! Or why comes thou to Carterhaugh 25 Withoutten my command? Carterhaugh it is my ain, My daddie gave it me; I’ll come and gang by Carterhaugh And ask nae leave at thee. 30 Janet has kilted her green kirtle, A little aboon her knee, And she has snooded her yellow hair, A little aboon her bree, And she is to her father’s ha, 35 As fast as she can hie. Four and twenty ladies fair, Were playing at the ba, And out then cam the fair Janet, Ance the flower amang them a’, 40 Four and twenty ladies fair, Were playing at the chess, And out then cam the fair Janet, As green as onie glass. Out then spak an auld grey knight, 45 Lay o’er the castle wa’, And says, Alas, fair Janet for thee,

Songs and notes

883

But we’ll be blamed a’. Haud your tongue, ye auld fac’d knight, Some ill death may ye die, 50 Father my bairn on whom I will, I’ll father nane on thee. Out then spak her father dear, And he spak meek and mild, And ever alas, sweet Janet, he says, 55 I think thou gaes wi’ child. If that I gae wi’ child, father, Mysel maun bear the blame; There’s ne’er a laird about your ha, Shall get the bairn’s name. 60 ***

If my Love were an earthly knight, As he’s an elfin grey; I wad na gie my ain true-love For nae lord that ye hae. The steed that my true-love rides on, 65 Is lighter than the wind; Wi’ siller he is shod before, Wi’ burning gowd behind. Janet has kilted her green kirtle A little aboon her knee; 70 And she has snooded her yellow hair A little aboon her brie; And she’s awa to Carterhaugh As fast as she can hie When she cam to Carterhaugh, 75 Tam-Lin was at the well; And there she fand his steed standing,

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884

But away was himsel. She had na’ pu’d a double rose, A rose but only twa, 80 Till up then started young Tam-Lin, Says, Lady thou pu’s nae mae. Why pu’s thou the rose Janet, Amang the groves sae green, And a’ to kill the bonie babe 85 That we gat us between. O tell me, tell me, Tam-Lin she says, For’s sake that died on tree, If e’er ye was in holy chapel, Or Christendom did see. 90 Roxbrugh he was my grandfather, Took me with him to bide And ance it fell upon a day That wae did me betide. And ance it fell upon a day, 95 A cauld day and a snell. When we were frae the hunting come That frae my horse I fell. The queen o’ Fairies she caught me, In yon green hill to dwell, 100 ***

And pleasant is the fairy-land; But, an eerie tale to tell! Ay at the end of seven years We pay a tiend to hell. I am sae fair and fu’ o’ flesh 105 I’m fear’d it be mysel. But the night is Halloween, lady,

Songs and notes

885

The morn is Hallowday; Then win me, win me, an ye will, For weel I wat ye may, 110 Just at the mirk and midnight hour The fairy folk will ride; And they that wad their true love win, At Milecross they maun bide. But how shall I thee ken Tam-Lin, 115 Or how my true love know. Amang sae mony unco knights, The like I never saw. O first let pass the black Lady, And syne let pass the brown; 120 But quickly run to the milk-white steed, Pu ye his rider down. For I’ll ride on the milk-white steed, And ay nearest the town. Because I was an earthly knight 125 They gie me that renown, My right hand will be glov’d lady, My left hand will be bare. Cockt up shall my bonnet be, And kaim’d down shall my hair, 130 And thae’s the takens I gie thee, Nae doubt I will be there. They’ll turn me in your arms lady, Into an esk and adder, But hald me fast and fear me not, 135 I am your bairn’s father. They’ll turn me to a bear sae grim, And then a lion bold,

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886

But hold me fast and fear me not, As ye shall love your child. 140 ***

Again they’ll turn me in your arms, To a red het gaud of airn, But hold me fast and fear me not, I’ll do to you nae harm. And last they’ll turn me in your arms 145 Into the burning lead; Then throw me into well water, O throw me in wi’ speed. And then I’ll be your ain true love, I’ll turn a naked knight. 150 Then cover me wi’ your green mantle, And cover me out o’ sight. Gloomy, gloomy was the night, And eerie was the way, As fair Jenny in her green mantle 155 To Milecross she did gae. About the middle o’ the night, She heard the bridles ring; This lady was as glad at that As any earthly thing. 160 First she let the black pass by, And syne she let the brown; And quickly she ran to the milk white-steed, And pu’d the rider down. Sae weel she minded what he did say 165 And young Tam-Lin did win; Syne cover’d him wi’ her green mantle As blythe’s a bird in spring.

Songs and notes

887

Out then spak the queen o’ fairies, Out of a bush o broom; 170 Them that has gotten young Tam-Lin, Has gotten a stately groom. Out then spak the queen o’ fairies, And an angry queen was she; Shame betide her ill-far’d face, 175 And an ill death may she die, ***

For she’s ta’en awa the boniest knight In a’ my companie, But had I kend Tam-Lin, she says, What now this night I see, 180 I wad hae taen out thy twa grey een, And put in twa een o’ tree. SMM no. 411 (1796); Hastie MS, ff. 117–20 gowd gold wad wager, stake kirtle gown aboon above broded braided bree brow pu’d pulled tway two nae mae no more ain own gang go ba ball ance once haud hold spak spoke bairn child siller silver gowd gold snooded bound with a snood gat got

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888

wae woe snell keen, bitter tiend tythe, tax fu’ full fear’d afraid Halloween eve of All Saints’ Day an if wat know mirk dark unco strange syne then kuim’d combed esk lizard het hot gaud of airn goad of iron minded remembered ill-far’d ill-favoured Tam Lin is a traditional ballad dating from the later Middle Ages, perhaps the greatest of all Scotland’s songs of the supernatural. The tayl of the yong tamlene’ appears in the catalogue of songs, and ‘thom of lyn’ in the catalogue of dances, in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549). Burns’s text of Tam Lin is the first reasonably complete version to have appeared in print, and in some respects the best of all recorded versions of the ballad. Only a fragmentary version collected by David Herd pre-dates it in print. Burns may have collected his version of ‘Tam Lin’ direct from oral tradition, adding to it some lines of his own. The precise means by which he obtained his text, however, are unknown. There is a related manuscript in the collections of his Ellisland neighbour Robert Riddell. It seems likely, therefore, as F.J.Child argued, that Burns and Riddell ‘derived the verses that are common from the same third party’. The version in SMM has narrative completeness and unity. Burns is known to have contributed at least the detail of lines 65–8, 129–30, the phrasing of lines 145–8 and lines 153–60, which as Kinsley notes, are ‘among the loveliest in Scottish balladry’. (Cf. E.B.Lyle, ‘The Burns text of Tam Lin’, Scottish Studies, 15(1) 53–65.) The air is not otherwise known, and was apparently communicated by Burns to SMM.

Songs and notes

889

311 Had I the wyte, had I the wyte Tune: Come kiss with me

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890

Had I the wyte, had I the wyte, (*) Had I the wyte—she bade me; (*) She watch’d me by the hie-gate side, And up the loan she shaw’d me; And whan I wad na venture in, (*) 5 A coward loon she ca’d me: (*) Had kirk and state been in the gate, I’d lighted when she bade me. Sae craftilie she took me ben, And bade me mak nae clatter; (*) 10 ‘For our ramgunshoch, glum goodman (*) ‘Is o’er ayont the water:’ Whae’er shall say I wanted grace, (*) When I did kiss and dawte her, (*) Let him be planted in my place, 15 Syne, say, I was a fautour. Could I for shame, could I for shame, (*) Could I for shame refus’d her; (*) And wad na Manhood been to blame, Had I unkindly us’d her: 20 He claw’d her wi’ the ripplin-kame, (*) And blae and bluidy bruis’d her; (*) When sic a husband was frae hame, What wife but wad excus’d her! I dighted ay her een sae blue, (*) 25 And bann’d the cruel randy; (*) And weel I wat her willin mou Was e’en like succarcandie. At glomin-shote it was, I wot, (*) I lighted on the Monday; 30 But I cam thro’ the Tiseday’s dew To wanton Willie’s brandy. SMM no. 415 (1796), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 121

Songs and notes

891

* These lines should be repeated three times each.

wyte blame hie-gate-side side of the high road loan roadway, grassy track shaw’d showed loon rascal ca’d called ben inside ramgunshoch ill-tempered ayont beyond dawte fondle syne then fautour wrong-doer claw’d beat ripplin-kame flax comb blae livid dighted wiped bann’d cursed randy rough fellow wat know mou mouth e’en even glomin-shote twilight indoors Tiseday Tuesday Based on a traditional song, represented by a fragment in Herd’s MSS:

Had I the wyte? had I the wyte? Had I the wyte? She bad me, And ay she gied me cheese and bread To kiss her when she bad me, For she was stewart in the house, And I was footman-ladie, And ay she gied me cheese and bread, To kiss her, when she bad me. (Hecht 117) Burns may also have written or collected a bawdy version of ‘Had I the wyte’, included in MMC. The air, entitled ‘Come kiss with me, come clap with me’, is in Ramsay’s Musick for The Tea-Table Miscellany, and in Orpheus Caledonius II (1733) no. 39.

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Songs and notes

893

312 Comin thro’ the rye, poor body Tune: Miller’s wedding

Comin thro’ the rye, poor body, Comin thro’ the rye, She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie, Comin thro’ the rye! CHORUS Oh Jenny’s a’ weet poor body, 5 Jenny’s seldom dry; She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie,

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894

Comin thro’ the rye! Gin a body meet a body Comin thro’ the rye, 10 Gin a body kiss a body Need a body cry. Oh Jenny’s a’ weet, etc. Gin a body meet a body Comin thro’ the glen; Gin a body kiss a body 15 Need the warld ken! Oh Jenny’s a’ weet, etc. SMM no. 417 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ body person draigl’t bedraggled weet wet warld world Burns’s expansion of a traditional song in Thomas Mansfield’s MS (1770–80), at Broughton House, Kirkcudbright, which has a variant of lines 1–8:

Jennys a’ wet, poor Body Coming frae the Kye Jennys a’ wet, poor Body Coming frae the Kye She draggled a’ her petticoat She draggled a’ her petticoat She draggled a’ her petticoat And Jennys never dry. (Studies in Scottish Literature (July 1963) I 56) He also amused himself with the bawdy potential of ‘Comin thro’ the rye’ in a song in the MMC. Burns marked the tune as Miller’s Wedding—a Strathspey. It occurs in Bremner’s Reels (1759) 41.

Songs and notes

895

313 Our young lady’s a huntin gane Tune: The rowin’t in her apron

Part of a traditional ballad, recovered by Burns near Dumfries (Stenhouse (1853) 379). The ‘lords’ of the ballad were the Maxwells, whose castle of Terreagles stood on the banks of Nith. Burns knew their descendant, Lady Winifred Constable. Cf. no. 121, ‘The noble Maxwells and their powers’. The tune is in McDonald’s Collection of Highland Vocal Airs (1784) no. 57.

Our young lady’s a huntin gane, Sheets nor blankets has she ta’en, But she’s born her auld son or she cam hame, And she’s row’d him in her apron.— Her apron was o’ the hollan fine, 5 Laid about wi’ laces nine; She thought it a pity her babie should tyne, And she’s row’d him in her apron.— Her apron was o’ the hollan sma, Laid about wi’ laces a’, 10 She thought it a pity her babe to let fa, And she row’d him in her apron.—

The songs of Robert burns

896

***

Her father says within the ha, Amang the knights and nobles a, I think I hear a babie ca, 15 In the chamber amang our young ladies.— O father dear it is a bairn, I hope it will do you nae harm, For the daddie I lo’ed, and he’ll lo’e me again, For the rowin’t in my apron.—20 O is he a gentleman, or is he a clown, That has brought thy fair body down, I would not for a’ this town The rowin’t in thy apron.— Young Terreagles he’s nae clown, 25 He is the toss of Edinborrow town, And he’ll buy me a braw new gown For the rowin’t in my apron.— ***

Its I hae castles, I hae towers, I hae barns, I hae bowers, 30 A’ that is mine it shall be thine, For the rowin’t in thy apron.— SMM no. 424 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 124 or before row’d wrapped hollan linen tyne get lost sma fine bairn child toss toast

Songs and notes

897

314 ’Twas on a Monday morning Tune: Charlie, he’s my darling

’Twas on a Monday morning Right early in the year, That Charlie came to our town— The young Chevalier! CHORUS An’ Charlie, he’s my darling, my darling, my darling, 5 Charlie, he’s my darling, the young Chevalier!— As he was walking up the street, The city for to view, O there he spied a bonie lass The window looking thro’. 10 An’ Charlie, etc.

The songs of Robert burns

898

Sae light’s he jimped up the stair, And tirled at the pin; And wha sae ready as hersel To let the laddie in. An’ Charlie, etc. He set his Jenny on his knee, 15 All in his Highland dress; For brawlie weel he ken’d the way To please a bonie lass. An’ Charlie, etc. It’s up yon hethery mountain, And down yon scroggy glen, 20 We daur na gang a milking, For Charlie and his men. An’ Charlie, etc. SMM no. 428 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 126 jimped jumped tirled rattled scroggy covered with stunted bushes daur dare A revision by Burns of a long romantic street ballad, a broadside of about 1775, concerning Bonnie Prince Charlie. Lines 11–14 are his addition, in traditional ballad style, to the incidents recorded in the original. Burns may have collected the air, which does not survive in an earlier version. Along with the chorus, it has since become very well known.

Songs and notes

899

315 Gat ye me, O, gat ye me Tune: Jack Latin

Gat ye me, O, gat ye me, O, gat ye me wi’ naething? Rock an’ reel, an’ spinning wheel, A mickle quarter bason: Bye attour, my gutcher has 5 A heich house and a laigh ane, A’ for-bye my bonie sel, The toss o’ Ecclefechan. O had your tongue now Luckie Laing, O had your tongue and jauner; 10 I held the gate till you I met,

The songs of Robert burns

900

Syne I began to wander: I tint my whistle and my sang, I tint my peace and pleasure; But your green graff, now Luckie Laing, 15 Wad airt me to my treasure. SMM no. 430 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 430 rock distaff bye attour besides, in addition gutcher grandfather heich high laigh low for bye besides sel self toss toast haud hold Luckie familiar term of address for an old woman; ale-wife jauner idle chatter gate way syne then tint lost sang song graff grave airt guide Probably Burns’s revision of a traditional dialogue song between a complaining wife and her husband. According to the early nineteenth-century editor Allan Cunningham, during the Poet’s visit to Annandale, an old song, called ‘The Lass of Ecclefechan,’ was sung to him, with which he was so amused that he noted it down, and, at a leisure moment, rendered the language more delicate, and the sentiments less warm. (Cunningham, Works of Robert Burns (1834) IV 295) There is a bawdy version in the MMC. The air, entitled Jack Latin, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) XII 6.

316 We’ll hide the cooper behint the door

Songs and notes

901

Tune: Bab at the bowster

CHORUS We’ll hide the cooper behint the door, Behint the door, behint the door; We’ll hide the cooper behint the door, And cover him under a mawn, O! The cooper o’ Cuddie came here awa, 5 He ca’d the girrs out owre us a’, An’ our gudewife has gotten a ca’, That’s anger’d the silly gudeman, O. We’ll hide, etc. He sought them out, he sought them in, Wi, deil hae her! and, deil hae him! 10 But the body he was sae doited and blin’,

The songs of Robert burns

902

He wist na whare he was gaun O. We’ll hide, etc. They cooper’d at e’en, they cooper’d at morn, Till our gudeman has gotten the scorn; On ilka brow she’s planted a horn, 15 And swears that they shall stan’ O. We’ll hide, etc. SMM no. 431 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 129r behint behind mawn two-handled wicker basket here awa hereabouts ca’d drove girrs hoops for a barrel gudewife mistress ca’ call, blow gudeman husband deil devil body person doited enfeebled blin’ blind wist knew na not A comic song ascribed to Burns on the evidence of the Hastie MS. Doubles entendres from the cooper’s trade were commonplace in folksong, and occur in a song in the Merry Muses of Caledonia:

There was a cooper they ca’d him Cuddy, He was the best cooper that ever I saw; He cam to girth our landlady’s tubbie, He bang’d her buttocks against the wa’. The air is the Skene MS (c. 1630) as Who learned you to dance, and as Bab at the Bowster in Aird’s Airs (1782) I 119.

Songs and notes

903

317 Will ye go to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay? Tune: Leezie Lindsay

Will ye go to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay? Will ye go to the Highlands wi’ me? Will ye go to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay, My pride and my darling to be? SMM no. 434 (1796) A fragment of a traditional song recovered by Burns. Johnson has a note on the musical MS which the poet transmitted to him, ‘Mr. Burns is to send words’, but in fact only four lines were received. Jamieson first published the complete ballad in Popular Ballads (1806) II 149. It tells the story of Donald MacDonald, a Highland heir, who seeks a bride in Edinburgh. His mother consents on the condition that he presents himself as a poor man; so he promises curds and whey, and a bed of bracken, to the ‘bonny young ladies’ of Edinburgh.

The songs of Robert burns

904

318 My heart is sair—I darena tell Tune: For the sake o’ Somebody

My heart is sair—I darena tell,— My heart is sair for Somebody; I could wake a winter night For the sake o’ Somebody. Oh-hon! for Somebody! 5 Oh-hey! for Somebody! I could range the world around, For the sake o’ Somebody. Ye Powers that smile on virtuous love, O, sweetly smile on Somebody! 10 Frae ilka danger keep him free,

Songs and notes

905

And send me safe my Somebody. Oh-hon! for Somebody! Oh-hey! for Somebody! I wad do—what wad I not—15 For the sake o’ Somebody! SMM no 436 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ sair sore warl world Burns based this song on a lovers’ dialogue in Ramsay’s The Tea-Table Miscellany (1724) but took only lines 3–4 from Ramsay’s chorus. ‘Somebody’ was a synonym for Prince Charles Edward. A stanza of one Jacobite song of the time is

If Somebody were come again, Then Somebody maun cross the main; And ilka ane will get his ain, And I will see my Somebody. The air was published in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1752) IV 30.

The songs of Robert burns

906

319 I coft a stane o’ haslock woo Tune: The cardin o’t

I coft a stane o’ haslock woo, To mak a wab to Johnie o’t; For Johnie is my onlie jo—

Songs and notes

907

I lo’e him best of onie yet! CHORUS The cardin o’t, the spinnin o’t, 5 The warpin o’t, the winnin o’t; When ilka ell cost me a groat, The tailor staw the lynin o’t. For though his locks be lyart grey, And though his brow be beld aboon, 10 Yet I hae seen him on a day The pride of a’ the parishon. The cardin, etc. SMM 437 (1796), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 132 coft bought stane stone haslock woo wool on sheep’s neck wab woven fabric jo sweetheart warpin weaving winnin winding ell unit of measurement groat silver coin of small value, 3d Scots staw stole lyart grizzled beld bald aboon above parishon parish Probably an original song by Burns, although part of the chorus may be traditional. Allan Cunningham writes, ‘The little of this song to which antiquity lays claim is so trifling that the whole may be said to be the work of Burns’ (Works of Robert Burns (1834) IV 301). The air, entitled Queensbury’s Scots Measure, is in the Margaret Sinkler’s MS (1710), and in Aird’s Selection (1788) III 487.

320 Its up wi’ the Souters o’ Selkirk

The songs of Robert burns

908

Tune: The Souters o’ Selkirk

Its up wi’ the Souters o’ Selkirk, And down wi’ the Earl of Hume, And here is to a’ the braw laddies That wear the single-sol’d shoon. Its up wi’ the Souters o’ Selkirk, 5 For they are baith trusty and leal, And up wi’ the lads o’ the forest, And down wi’ the Merse to the deil! SMM no. 438 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 132

Songs and notes

909

Sutors shoemakers shoon shoes leal loyal deil devil A traditional song which Burns communicated to Johnson, and which seems to have been first printed in the Museum. 1 Selkirk was known for its shoemakers. 8 The Merse is low-lying ground near Berwick, associated with the Earls of Hume.

It is possible that Burns had the verses from David Herd, who was making inquiries about their origin in 1792–3. Scott succeeded in recovering a further stanza to follow 1. 4, criticizing the house of Home:

Fye upon yellow and yellow And fye upon yellow and green; But up with the true blue and scarlet, And up wi’ the single-soled sheen Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ed. T.F.Henderson (1931 edn) 486–93.

The songs of Robert burns

910

321 Tibbie Fowler o’ the glen Tune: Tibbie Fowler

According to the Law MS (titles for the SMM III), ‘Mr Burns gave the ballad and corrected it with his own hand’. Lines 1–8 occur in a fragmentary song in Herd’s manuscripts (Hecht, 174), and another song known to David Herd has in a different form lines 21–8 (ibid., 174–5). Working probably with these traditional fragments, Burns has created a well sustained comic song. The air is SMM no. 440 (1796).

Tibbie Fowler o’ the glen, There’s o’er mony wooin at her, Tibbie Fowler o’ the glen, There’s o’er mony wooin at her. CHORUS Wooin at her, pu’in at her, 5

Songs and notes

911

Courtin at her, canna get her: Filthy elf, it’s for her pelf, That a’ the lads are wooin at her. Ten cam east, and ten cam west, Ten came rowin o’er the water; 10 Twa came down the lang dyke side, There’s twa and thirty wooin at her. Wooin at her, etc. There’s seven but, and seven ben, Seven in the pantry wi’ her; Twenty head about the door, 15 There’s ane and forty wooin at her. Wooin at her, etc. She’s got pendles in her lugs, Cockle-shells wad set her better; High-heel’d shoon and siller tags, And a’ the lads are wooin at her. 20 Wooin at her, etc. Be a lassie e’er sae black, An she hae the name o’ siller, Set her upo’ Tintock-tap, The wind will blaw a man till her. Wooin at her, etc. Be a lassie e’er sae fair, 25 An she want the pennie siller; A flie may fell her in the air, Before a man be even till her. Wooin at her, etc. SMM no. 440 (1796) o’er mony too many pu’in pulling canna cannot elf bewitching girl

The songs of Robert burns

dyke dry-stone wall but outside ben inside pendles pendants lugs ears wad would shoon shoes siller silver an if tap top blaw blow till to flie fly

912

Songs and notes

913

322 There’s three true gude fellows Tune: Three gude fellows ayont the glen

CHORUS There’s three true gude fellows, There’s three true gude fellows, There’s three true gude fellows, Down ayont yon glen! It’s now the day is dawin, 5 But or night do fa’ in, Whase cock’s best at crawin, Willie, thou sall ken. There’s three, etc.

The songs of Robert burns

914

SMM no. 442 (1796) ayont beyond dawin dawning or before crawin crowing The chorus which opens the song is traditional, and the verse is by Burns. He wrote to Alexander Cunningham in May 1789, you, [Cleghorn, and William Dunbar] are to me ‘Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart—’ I have a good mind to make verses on you all, to the tune of, Three guid fellows ayont yon glen. (Letter 336, Letters I 405) The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1753) V 1.

Songs and notes

915

323 When Januar’ wind was blawin cauld Tune: The lass that made the bed to me

When Januar’ wind was blawing cauld, As to the north I took my way, The mirksome night did me enfauld, I knew na where to lodge till day. By my gude luck a maid I met, 5 Just in the middle o’ my care; And kindly she did me invite To walk into a chamber fair. I bow’d fu’ low unto this maid, And thank’d her for her courtesie; 10 I bow’d fu’ low unto this maid, And bade her mak a bed for me. She made the bed baith large and wide, Wi’ twa white hands she spread it down;

The songs of Robert burns

916

She put the cup to her rosy lips 15 And drank, ‘Young man now sleep ye sound.’ She snatch’d the candle in her hand, And frae my chamber went wi’ speed; But I call’d her quickly back again To lay some mair below my head. 20 A cod she laid below my head, And serv’d me wi’ due respect; And to salute her wi’ a kiss, I put my arms about her neck. Haud aff your hands young man, she says, 25 And dinna sae uncivil be: Gif ye hae ony luve for me, O wrang na my virginitie! Her hair was like the links o’ gowd, Her teeth were like the ivorie, 30 Her cheeks like lilies dipt in wine, The lass that made the bed to me. Her bosom was the driven snaw, Twa drifted heaps sae fair to see; Her limbs the polish’d marble stane, 35 The lass that made the bed to me. I kiss’d her o’er and o’er again, And ay she wist na what to say; I laid her between me and the wa’, The lassie thought na lang till day. 40 Upon the morrow when we rase, I thank’d her for her courtesie: But ay she blush’d, and ay she sigh’d, And said, Alas, ye’ve ruin’d me. I clasp’d her waist and kiss’d her syne, 45

Songs and notes

917

While the tear stood twinklin in her e’e; I said, My lassie dinna cry, For ye ay shall mak the bed to me. She took her mither’s holland sheets And made them a’ in sarks to me: 50 Blythe and merry may she be, The lass that made the bed to me. ***

The bonie lass made the bed to me, The braw lass made the bed to me; I’ll ne’er forget till the day that I die 55 The lass that made the bed to me. SMM no. 448 (1796), ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 135 blawing blowing mirksome dark enfauld enfold fu’ very cod pillow haud aff hold off dinna don’t gif if wrang wrong gowd gold snaw snow twa two stane stone wist knew rase rose syne then holland fine linen sarks shirts The situation is adapted from a version of the Restoration ballad, The Cumberland Lass, associated with Charles II (cf. Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, ed. T.D’Urfey (1719–20) iv 133–4). According to Stenhouse, Burns communicated the air, which resembles that of Johnie Cope (Stenhouse (1853) 397).

The songs of Robert burns

918

Songs and notes

919

324 O sad and heavy should I part Tune: Dalkeith Maiden Bridge

O sad and heavy should I part, But for her sake sae far awa; Unknowing what my way may thwart, My native land sae far awa.—

The songs of Robert burns

920

Thou that of a’ things Maker art, 5 That form’d this Fair sae far awa, Gie body strength, then I’ll ne’er start At this my way sae far awa.— How true is love to pure desert, So love to her, sae far awa: 10 And nocht can heal my bosom’s smart, While Oh, she is sae far awa.— Nane other love, nane other dart, I feel, but her’s sae far awa; But fairer never touch’d a heart 15 Than her’s, the Fair sae far awa.— SMM no. 449 (1796), signed B; Hastie MS, f. 136 Possibly written in December 1791 to express Burns’s feelings on parting from Clarinda, or early the next year when she sailed to Jamaica to attempt a reconciliation with her husband. Cf. no. 166. The air is in Aird, Airs (1788) III 439.

Songs and notes

921

325 Wap and rowe, wap and rowe Tune: The reel o’ Stumpie

CHORUS Wap and rowe, wap and rowe, Wap and rowe the feetie o’t; I thought I was a maiden fair, Till I heard the greetie o’t. My daddie was a fiddler fine, 5 My minnie she made mantie, O; And I mysel a thumpin quine, And danc’d the reel o’ Stumpie, O. SMM no. 457 (1796)

The songs of Robert burns

922

wap wrap rowe roll feetie feet greetie crying minnie mother made mantie was a dress-maker thumpin large quine girl Partly traditional; recast by Burns with a view to being set to The reel o’ Stumpie in SMM. Cf. a bawdy song with the same chorus in MMC. The tune is in Aird, Airs (1782) II 44.

Songs and notes

923

326 I’ll ay ca’ in by yon town Tune: I’ll gae nae mair to yon town

CHORUS I’ll ay ca’ in by yon town And by yon garden green again! I’ll ay ca’ in by yon town, And see my bonie Jean again.

The songs of Robert burns

924

There’s nane sall ken, there’s nane sall guess 5 What brings me back the gate again, But she, my fairest faithfu’ lass, And stownlins we sall meet again. I’ll ay ca’, etc. She’ll wander by the aiken tree, When trystin time draws near again; 10 And when her lovely form I see, O haith, she’s doubly dear again! I’ll ay ca’, etc. SMM no. 458 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 137 town farm, village, town gate way stownlins stealthily aiken oaken trystin meeting haith ‘a petty oath’ (Burns) The chorus is in part traditional. Burns has revised it and written the two verses of the song. Stenhouse states that the song was written in honour of Jean Armour, and adapted to the fine old air called ‘I’ll gang nae mair to yon Town’, which was the first line of an old ballad that began thus—

‘I’ll gang nae mair to yon town, O, never a’ my life again; I’ll ne’er gae back to yon town To seek anither wife again’. (Stenhouse (1853) 503) The tune had been published in several collections, including Bremner’s Scots Reels (1757) 6, and Aird’s Airs (1782) 135. ‘Town’, l. 1, here means house or farm. Burns noted for Johnson, This tune is evidently the old air, ‘We’ll gang nae mair to yon town’, & I suspect is not the best set of the air; but in Bowie’s, & other Collections, the old tune is to be found, & you can correct this by these other copies. (Hastie MS)

Songs and notes

925

327 Aften hae I play’d at the cards and the dice Tune: The rantin laddie

Aften hae I play’d at the cards and the dice, For the love of a bonie rantin laddie; But now I maun sit in my father’s kitchen neuk, Below a bastart babie.— For my father he will not me own, 5 And my mother she neglects me, And a’ my friends hae lightlyed me, And their servants they do slight me.— But had I a servant at my command, As aft-times I’ve had many, 10 That wad rin wi’ a letter to bonie Glenswood, Wi’ a letter to my rantin laddie.— Oh, is he either a laird, or a lord, Or is he but a cadie,

The songs of Robert burns

926

That ye do him ca’ sae aften by name, 15 Your bonie, bonie rantin laddie.— Indeed he is baith a laird and a lord, And he never was a cadie; But he is the Earl o’ bonie Aboyne, And he is my rantin laddie.—20 O ye’se get a servant at your command, As aft-times ye’ve had many, That sall rin wi’ a letter to bonie Glenswood, A letter to your rantin laddie.— When lord Aboyne did the letter get, 25 O but he blinket bonie; But or he had read three lines of it, I think his heart was sorry.— O wha is he daur be sae bauld, Sae cruelly to use my lassie? 30 ***

For her father he will not her know, And her mother she does slight her, And a’ her friends hae lightlied her, And their servants they neglect her.— Go raise to me my five hundred men, 35 Make haste and make them ready; With a milkwhite steed under every ane, For to bring hame my lady.— As they cam in thro Buchan shire, They were a company bonie, 40 With a gude claymore in every hand, And O, but they shin’d bonie.— SMM no. 462 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 140

Songs and notes

927

rantin riotous neuk corner lightlyed scorned aft-times often rin run laird landowner cadie rascal ye’se you shall blinket glanced fondly or before daur dares bauld bold This is the earliest printed version of the traditional ballad of Lord Aboyne (Child 240). Both words and melody were collected by Burns for the Museum, perhaps while touring the north-east of Scotland in 1787 (Stenhouse (1853) 405). The tune, which Dick describes as ‘captivating’ and ‘a distinct acquisition to the folk music of Scotland’ (Dick 494), was next printed in Gow’s Repository (1802) under the title of Lord Aboyne,

The songs of Robert burns

928

328 O May, thy morn was ne’er sae sweet Tune: The rashes

O May, thy morn was ne’er sae sweet As the mirk night o’ December! For sparkling was the rosy wine, And private was the chamber:

Songs and notes

929

And dear was she I dare na name, 5 But I will ay remember. And dear was she I dare na name, But I will ay remember. And here’s to them, that, like oursel, Can push about the jorum; 10 And here’s to them that wish us weel, May a’ that’s gude watch o’er them: And here’s to them we dare na tell, The dearest o’ the quorum. And here’s to them, we dare na tell, 15 The dearest o’ the quorum. SMM no. 464 (1796), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 141 mirk dark jorum punch-bowl Burns here unites love and wine, two perennial themes of song. The verses are supposed to commemorate his last meeting with ‘Clarinda’, Nancy McLehose. The air, The rashes, has Jacobite associations, strengthened by its use as the set for The Wee, Wee German Lairdie.

The songs of Robert burns

930

329 As I came o’er the Cairney mount Tune: The Highland lassie

As I came o’er the Cairney mount, And down amang the blooming heather, Kindly stood the milking-shiel

Songs and notes

931

To shelter frae the stormy weather. CHORUS O, my bonie Highland lad, 5 My winsome, weelfar’d Highland laddie! Wha wad mind the wind and rain Sae weel ro’d in his tartan plaidie! Now Phebus blinkit on the bent, And o’er the knowes the lambs were bleating: 10 But he wan my heart’s consent, To be his ain at the neist meeting.— O my bonie, etc. SMM no. 467 (1796), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 143 milkin-shiel shed for milking cows or ewes weelfar’d well-favoured, handsome row’d wrapped plaidie long piece of tartan cloth used as a cloak blinkit gleamed bent moor of bent-grass wan won ain own neist next ‘The first and indeed the most beautiful set of this tune’, Burns explains, was formerly, and in some places is still known by the name of As I cam o’er the Cairney Mount, which is the first line of an excellent, but somewhat licentious song still sung to the tune. (Notes 8) A version of the song he mentions is in the MMC 44–5. Burns refers in his manuscript notes on Scots songs to song 329, ‘As I cam o’er the Cairney mount’ as ‘original’; ‘it consists of three stanzas, besides the chorus; and has humour in its composition’ (Edinburgh University Library, Laing MSS; Burns Chronicle (1922) 11). This comment probably plays down the extent of his revision. The air, The Highland lassie, is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) 112.

The songs of Robert burns

932

330 The bonniest lad that e’er I saw Tune: The Highland laddie

The bonniest lad that e’er I saw— Bonie laddie, Highland laddie; Wore a plaid and was fu’ braw— Bonie Highland laddie! On his head a bonnet blue—5 Bonie laddie, Highland laddie; His royal heart was firm and true— Bonie Highland laddie! Trumpets sound and cannons roar, Bonie lassie, Lawland lassie—10 And a’ the hills wi’ echoes roar, Bonie Lawland lassie!

Songs and notes

933

Glory, honor, now invite— Bonie lassie, Highland lassie; For freedom and my King to fight, 15 Bonie Lawland lassie! The sun a backward course shall take, Bonie laddie, Highland laddie; Ere ought thy manly courage shake; Bonie Highland laddie! 20 Go, for yoursel’ procure renown, Bonie laddie, Highland laddie, And for your lawful king his crown, Bonie Highland laddie! SMM no. 468 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 144r plaid long tartan woven cloth as a cloak Lawland Lowland An abridgement by Burns of a dialogue song of 1745, The Highland Lad and the Highland Lass. Lines 1–8 are his original contribution. ‘As this was a favourite theme with our later Scotish muses, there are several airs and songs of that name’ [Highland Laddie] (Burns’s manuscript notes, Burns Chronicle (1922)). The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I 36 and several collections.

The songs of Robert burns

934

331 O lovely Polly Stewart Tune: Ye’re welcome Charlie Stewart

CHORUS O lovely Polly Stewart, O charming Polly Stewart, There’s ne’er a flower that blooms in May, That’s half so fair as thou art! The flower it blaws, it fades, it fa’s, 5 And art can ne’er renew it;

Songs and notes

935

But worth and truth eternal youth Will gie to Polly Stewart! O lovely, etc. May he, whase arms shall fauld thy charms, Possess a leal and true heart! 10 To him be given, to ken the heaven He grasps in Polly Stewart! O lovely, etc. SMM no. 471 (1796), ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’; Hastie MS, f. 146 fauld fold leal loyal, true A song about the daughter of William Stewart, factor at Closeburn Castle, about six miles north of Ellisland in Dumfriesshire. It owes a nominal debt to the Jacobite song Ye’re welcome, Charlie Stewart, which in 1749 was the cause of a riot in an Edinburgh theatre, on the anniversary of Culloden. Some officers called on the band to play Culloden, and the angry citizens demanded Ye’re welcome, Charlie Stewart. The tune is entitled Queensberry House in Bremner’s Reels (1758) 40.

The songs of Robert burns

936

332 Hee balou, my sweet wee Donald Tune: The highland balou

Hee balou, my sweet wee Donald, Picture o’ the great Clanronald! Brawlie kens our wanton chief Wha gat my young Highland thief. Leeze me on thy bonie craigie, 5 And thou live, thou’ll steal a naigie, Travel the country thro’ and thro’, And bring hame a Carlisle cow. Thro’ the Lawlands, o’er the Border, Weel, my babie, may thou furder: 10 Herry the louns o’ the laigh Countrie, Syne to the Highlands hame to me. SMM no. 472 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 147 hee-balou hush! gat begot leeze me on I am delighted by craigie neck

Songs and notes

937

naigie pony furder go on, progress herry harry louns rascals laigh low syne then ‘This curious song’, says Stenhouse, ‘is a versification, by Burns, of a Gaelic nursery song, the literal import of which, as well as the air, were communicated to him by a Highland lady’ (Stenhouse (1853) 416). Cf. Evan Dhu in Scott, Waverley XVIII: He that steals a cow from a poor widow or a stirk from a cottar is a thief; he that lifts a drove from a Sassenach laird is a gentleman drover. And, besides, to take a tree from the forest, a salmon from the river, a deer from the hill, or a cow from a Lowland strath, is what no Highlander need ever think shame upon.

The songs of Robert burns

938

333 Bannocks o’ bear meal Tune: The Killogie

CHORUS Bannocks o’ bear meal, Bannocks o’ barley; Here’s to the Highlandman’s Bannocks o’ barley! Wha in a brulzie, will first cry a parley? 5 Never the lads wi’ the bannocks o’ barley! Bannocks o’, etc. Wha, in his wae days, were loyal to Charlie?

Songs and notes

939

Wha but the lads wi’ the bannocks o’ barley.— Bannocks o’, etc. SMM no. 475 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 150 bannock round, flat girdle-baked cakes bear barley brulzie affray parley truce wae sad Probably collected by Burns from oral tradition for the Museum. A fragment on David Williamson in Herd’s MSS makes use of a similar chorus:

Mass David Williamson, Chosen of twenty, Gaed up to the pulpit And sang Killicrankie, Saw ye e’er, heard ye e’er, Sickan a soudie? Bannocks o’ bear-meal, Cakes o’ croudie! (Hecht 207) The air, which is associated with a number of Jacobite songs, is in Margaret Sinkler’s MS (1710), the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751) III 6 and other collections.

334 Wae is my heart, and the tear’s in my e’e Tune: Wae is my heart

The songs of Robert burns

940

Wae is my heart, and the tear’s in my e’e; Lang, lang joy’s been a stranger to me: Forsaken and friendless my burden I bear, And the sweet voice o’ pity ne’er sounds in my ear. Love, thou hast pleasures, and deep hae I loved; 5 Love thou hast sorrows, and sair hae I proved: But this bruised heart that now bleeds in my breast, I can feel by its throbbings will soon be at rest. O, if I were, where happy I hae been; Down by yon stream and yon bonie castle-green: 10 For there he is wand’ring, and musing on me, Wha wad soon dry the tear frae his Phillis’s e’e. SMM no. 476 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 151 wae sad sair sore

Songs and notes

941

Ascribed to Burns on the evidence of the Hastie MS. Stenhouse writes, This simple old air of one strain was recovered by Burns, and transmitted to the Editor of the Museum, alongst with the three beautiful stanzas written by himself, to which the tune is adapted. (Stenhouse (1853) 420)

The songs of Robert burns

942

335 Altho’ my back be at the wa’ Tune: The job of journey work

Altho’ my back be at the wa’, And tho’ he be the fautor, Altho’ my back be at the wa’,

Songs and notes

943

Yet here’s his health in water! O, wae gae by his wanton sides, 5 Sae brawlie’s he could flatter; Till for his sake I’m slighted sair, And dree the kintra clatter! But, tho’ my back be at the wa’, Yet here’s his health in water! 10 SMM no. 480 (1796), signed ‘Z’; Hastie MS, f. 128 fautor wrong-doer wae woe sair sore dree the kintra clatter put up with the talk of the countryside Burns here writes from the point of view of a girl who has been seduced, and who as a result has had to put up with the gossip of the neighbourhood (‘dree the kintra clatter’), yet who still is ready to drink a toast to her lover. For a similarly defiant outlook, see no. 30, ‘O wha my babie-clouts will buy’. (See also no. 336.) The tune was first printed in Aird’s Airs (1788) III 401. Source of music: Hastie MS, originally a third higher in key G.

The songs of Robert burns

944

336 Altho’ my back be at the wa’ Tune: The job of journey work

Altho’ my back be at the wa’, And tho’ he be the fautor, Altho’ my back be at the wa’,

Songs and notes

945

I’ll drink his health in water! O, wae gae by his wanton sides, 5 Sae brawlie’s he could flatter; I for his sake am slighted sair, And dree the kintra clatter! But let them say whate’er they like, Yet, here’s his health in water! 10 He follow’d me baith out and in, Thro’ a’ the nooks o’ Killie; He follow’d me baith out an’ in, Wi’ a stiff stanin’ p-llie. But when he gat atween my legs, 15 We made an unco splatter; An’ haith, I trow, I soupled it, Tho’ bauldly he did blatter; But now my back is at the wa’, Yet here’s his health in water. 20 MMC fau’tor defaulter wae gae by cursed be sair sore dree the kintra clatter endure the gossip of the countryside nooks corners Killie Kilmarnock stanin’ erect atween between splatter splash trow trust soupled made pliant bauldly boldly blatter work vigorously The point of view and phrasing of the additional stanza in this version of ‘Altho’ my back be at the wa’’ in the Merry Muses seem characteristic of Burns. The air is in Aird, Airs (1788) III 401. Source of music: see no. 335.

The songs of Robert burns

946

337 O for my ain king, quo’ gude Wallace Tune: Gude Wallace

O for my ain king, quo gude Wallàce, The rightfu’ king o’ fair Scotland; Between me and my Sovereign Blude I think I see some ill seed sawn.— Wallàce out over yon river he lap, 5 And he has lighted low down on yon plain, And he was aware of a gay ladie, As she was at the well washing.— What tydins, what tydins, fair lady, he says, What tydins hast thou to tell unto me; 10 What tydins, what tydins, fair lady, he says, What tydins hae ye in the South Countrie.— Low down in yon wee Ostler house,

Songs and notes

947

There is fyfteen Englishmen, And they are seekin for gude Wallàce, 15 It’s him to take and him to hang.— There’s nocht in my purse, quo gude Wallàce, There’s nocht, not even a bare pennie; But I will down to yon wee Ostler house Thir fyfteen Englishmen to see.—20 And when he can to yon wee Ostler house, He bad benedicite be there; ***

Where was ye born, auld crookit Carl, 25 Where was ye born, in what countrie; I am a true Scot born and bred, And an auld, crookit carl just sic as ye see.— I wad gie fyfteen shilling to onie crookit carl, To onie crookit carl just sic as ye, 30 If ye will get me gude Wallace, For he is the man I wad very fain see.— He hit the proud Captain alang the chafft-blade, That never a bit o’ meat he ate mair; And he sticket the rest at the table where they sat, 35 And he left them a’ lyin sprawlin there.— Get up, get up, gudewife, he says, And get to me some dinner in haste; For it will soon be three lang days Sin I a bit o’ meat did taste.—40 The dinner was na weel readie, Nor was it on the table set, Till other fyfteen Englishmen Were a’ lighted about the yett.— Come out, come out now, gude Wallàce, 45

The songs of Robert burns

948

This is the day that thou maun die; I lippen nae sae little to God, he says, Altho’ I be but ill wordie.— The gudewife had an auld gudeman, By gude Wallace he stiffly stood, 50 Till ten o’ the fyfteen Englishmen Before the door lay in their blude.— ***

The other five to the greenwood ran, And he hang’d these five upon a grain: And on the morn wi’ his merry men a’ 55 He sat at dine in Lochmaben town.— SMM no. 484 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 153 sawn sown lap leaped Ostler house hostelry, inn nocht nothing bad benedicite blessed, greeted crookit deformed carl fellow alang along chafft-blade jaw-bone mair more yett gate lippen trust wordie worthy gudeman husband grain branch of a tree dine dinner-time A popular version of an episode in Blind Harry’s Actis and Deidis of… Schir Wiltyame Wallàce, collected from oral tradition by Burns. It partly corresponds (in ll. 1–16, 21–8, 29–32 and 33–56) to an earlier chapbook ballad, published about 1750. Burns informed John Moore in 1787 that as a boy he learned the story of Wallace [from William Hamilton of Bangour’s eighteenth-century version], and that it ‘poured a Scotish prejudice in my veins which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest’ (Letter 125, Letters I 136).

Songs and notes

949

The songs of Robert burns

950

338 The auld man’s mare’s dead Tune: The auld man’s mare’s dead

One of Scotland’s comic songs about tired old horses, revised by Burns. This song is included in a list of suggestions for SMM sent to Johnson in the autumn of 1795; Burns writes, ‘See the air in Aird’s Selection, & the words in the “Scots nightingale”’ (Letter 684, Letters II 369). The song is ascribed by Allan Ramsay to Peter Birnie, a wandering fiddler from Fife who lived at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and in The Scots Nightingale, 2nd edn (1779) 337–8 to a Mr Watt. Burns altered the order of the verses in the Nightingale text, rewrote the second stanza,

She had the hooks, they ca’d the crooks, The japish and the wanton looks; On every lug she had the brooks, And the hooks aboon her eye and made other verbal changes. The tune is in Aird, Airs (1782) II 158.

Songs and notes

951

CHORUS The auld man’s mare’s dead, The poor man’s mare’s dead, The auld man’s mare’s dead A mile aboon Dundee. She was cut-luggit, painch-lippit, 5 Steel-waimit, stancher-fitted, Chanler-chaftit, lang-neckit, Yet the brute did die. The auld, etc. Her lunzie-banes were knaggs and neuks, She had the cleeks, the cauld, the crooks, 10 The jawpish and the wanton yeuks, And the howks aboon her e’e. The auld, etc. My Master rode me to the town, He ty’d me to a stancher round; He took a chappin till himsel, 15 But fient a drap gae me. The auld, etc. The auld man’s mare’s dead, The poor man’s mare’s dead, The peats and tours and a’ to lead And yet the jad did die. 20 The auld, etc. SMM no. 485 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 154 cut-luggit crop-eared painch-lippit having lips like paunches steel-waimit steel-bellied stancher-fitted iron-footed chanler-chaftit lantern-jawed lang-neckit long-necked lunzie-banes haunch-bones

The songs of Robert burns

knaggs knots neuks corners cleeks cramp crooks disease of sheep causing curvature of neck jawpish urethritis yeuks itch howks disease affecting the eyes aboon above rade rode stancher stanchion, iron bar chappin drink of liquor fient a drap not a single drop tours sods

952

Songs and notes

953

339 The taylor he cam here to sew Tune: The Drummer

The taylor he cam here to sew, And weel he kend the way to woo, For ay he pree’d the lassie’s mou’, As he gaed but and ben, O. For weel he kend the way, O, 5 The way, O, the way, O! For weel he kend the way, O,

The songs of Robert burns

954

The lassie’s heart to win, O! The taylor rase and sheuk his duds, The flaes they flew awa in cluds, 10 And them that stay’d gat fearfu’ thuds, The taylor prov’d a man, O. For now it was the gloamin, The gloamin, the gloamin, For now it was the gloamin, 15 When a’ to rest are gaun, O! SMM no. 490 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 156 pree’d…mou kissed but and ben in the outer and inner room sheuk shook duds clothes flaes fleas cluds clouds gloamin twilight A ‘trade’ song of wooing; cf. nos 31, 68,126, 316 and 568. Lines 1–12 are Burns’s abridgement of a broadside, The Taylor of Hogerglen’s Wedding (1776); lines 13–16 are original. The Taylor, a seduction song, is in Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd (1776) II 145–7. The air is in Stewart’s Reels (1762) 28, and in Aird, Airs (1782) 1129. Burns instructed Johnson on his MS: ‘Only remember that the second part of the tune, as Aird has set it, goes here to the first part of the song; and of course Aird’s first part goes to the chorus’.

Songs and notes

955

340 There grows a bonie brier-bush in our kailyard Tune: The bonie brier-brush

There grows a bonie brier-bush in our kail-yard, There grows a bonie brier-bush in our kail-yard; And below the bonie brier-bush there’s a lassie and a lad, And they’re busy, busy courting in our kail-yard. We’ll court nae mair below the buss in our kail-yard, 5 We’ll court nae mair below the buss in our kail-yard, We’ll awa to Athole’s green, and there we’ll no be seen, Whare the trees and the branches will be our safe-guard.

The songs of Robert burns

956

Will ye go to the dancin in Carlyle’s ha’, Will ye go to the dancin in Carlyle’s ha’, 10 Whare Sandy and Nancy I’m sure will ding them a’? I winna gang to the dance in Carlyle-ha’. What will I do for a lad, when Sandy gangs awa? What will I do for a lad, when Sandy gangs awa? I will awa to Edinburgh and win a pennie fee, 15 And see an onie bonie lad will fancy me. He’s comin frae the North that’s to fancy me, He’s comin frae the North that’s to fancy me, A feather in his bonnet and a ribbon at his knee, He’s a bonie, bonie laddie and yon be he. 20 SMM no. 492 (1796), signed Z; Hastie MS, f. 156 kail-yard kitchen-garden buss bush ding beat winna will not fee hire an if Stenhouse comments, This song, with the exception of a few lines, which are old, was written by Burns for the Museum. It is accordingly marked with the letter Z, to denote its being an old song with additions. Burns likewise communicated the air to which the words are adapted. (Stenhouse (1853) 432) Dick adds in 1903, ‘From the verses of Burns a pungent critic branded the modern school of Scottish sentimental fiction “Kailyard literature”’ (Dick 470).

Songs and notes

957

341 Here’s to thy health, my bonie lass Tune: Laggan burn

Here’s to thy health, my bonie lass; Gude night and joy be wi’ thee; I’ll come nae mair to thy bower-door To tell thee that I lo’e thee. O, dinna think, my pretty pink, 5 But I can live without thee: I vow and swear, I dinna care How lang ye look about ye!

The songs of Robert burns

958

Thou’rt ay sae free informing me Thou hast nae mind to marry: 10 I’ll be as free informing thee, Nae time hae I to tarry. I ken thy friends try ilka means Frae wedlock to delay thee; Depending on some higher chance, 15 But fortune may betray thee. I ken they scorn my low estate, But that does never grieve me; For I’m as free as any he, Sma’ siller will relieve me. 20 I’ll count my health my greatest wealth, Sae lang as I’ll enjoy it: I’ll fear nae scant, I’ll bode nae want, As lang’s I get employment. But far-off fowls hae feathers fair, 25 And ay until ye try them: Tho’ they seem fair, still have a care, They may prove as bad as I am. But at twal at night, when the moon shines bright, My dear, I’ll come and see thee; 30 For the man that loves his mistress weel, Nae travel makes him weary. SMM no. 495 (1796), signed B; Hastie MS, f. 160 dinna don’t siller silver, money scant dearth bode expect twal twelve Johnson states ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’, but this is Burns’s revision of a song which exists in his autograph at Alloway, with the footnote: ‘as far as I can recollect, the compilation of an illiterate Millwright, about thirty or forty years ago, somewhere in Ayr-shire’. The air is SMM no. 495 (1796).

Songs and notes

959

342 It was a’ for our rightfu’ king Tune: Mally Stuart

Burns’s inspired reworking of a chapbook ballad in 11 stanzas, ‘Mally Stuart’, dating from just after the unsuccessful final Jacobite Rising of 1745. In the ballad, Mally Stuart of ‘bonny Stirling town’ disguises herself in men’s clothes and follows the trooper from whom she has been parted. Part of Burns’s art in recasting old material lay in knowing not only what to borrow, but what to leave out. Only at one point is there a clear verbal echo: his central stanza is based on the final stanza of the printed ballad: The trooper turn’d himself about all on the Irish shore, He has given the bridle-reins a shake, saying

‘Adieu for ever more, My dear, Adieu for evermore’. What Burns has done is to take the idea of a soldier separated from the one he loves, and transform it into a means of evoking by narrative outline and movingly repeated phrases one of the personal tragedies of unsuccessful rebellion. At the heart of his song is a sense of the speaker’s loyalty to a cause which has failed—as it happens at great cost to himself. ‘It was a’ for our rightfu’ king’ is thus made universal, about the price of political devotion, true love, and the sadness of war. The tune Mally Stuart is a variant of a seventeenth-century English melody, The bailiff’s daughter of Islington.

The songs of Robert burns

960

It was a’ for our rightfu’ king We left fair Scotland’s strand; It was a’ for our rightfu’ king, We e’er saw Irish land, my dear— We e’er saw Irish land. 5 Now a’ is done that men can do, And a’ is done in vain: My Love and Native Land fareweel, For I maun cross the main, my dear, For I maun cross the main. 10 He turn’d him right and round about, Upon the Irish shore, And gae his bridle-reins a shake, With, adieu for evermore, my dear, With, adieu for evermore. 15 The soger frae the wars returns, The sailor frae the main, But I hae parted frae my Love, Never to meet again, my dear, Never to meet again. 20 When day is gane, and night is come, And a’ folk bound to sleep; I think on him that’s far awa, The lee-lang night and weep, my dear, The lee-lang night and weep.—25 SMM no. 497 (1796) soger soldier lee-lang livelong

Songs and notes

961

343 O, I am come to the low countrie Tune: The Highland widow’s lament

Ascribed to Burns on the evidence of the Hastie MS. According to Stenhouse, this pathetic ballad…was wholly composed by Burns for the Museum, unless we except the exclamation Ochon, ochon, ochrie! which appears in the old song composed on the massacre of Glencoe [SMM no. 89 (1787)]… Burns likewise communicated the plaintive Gaelic air, which he obtained from a lady in the north of Scotland, and of which he was remarkably fond. (Stenhouse (1853) 436)

O, I am come to the low countrie— Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie!— Without a penny in my purse To buy a meal to me. It was na sae in the Highland hills, 5 Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie! Nae woman in the Country wide Sae happy was as me. For then I had a score o’ kye, Ochon, etc. 10

The songs of Robert burns

962

Feeding on yon hill sae high, And giving milk to me. And there I had three score o’ yowes, Ochon, etc. Skipping on yon bonie knowes, 15 And casting woo to me. I was the happiest of a’ the Clan, Sair, sair may I repine; For Donald was the brawest man, And Donald he was mine. 20 Till Charlie Stewart cam at last, Sae far to set us free; My Donald’s arm was wanted then For Scotland and for me. Their waefu’ fate what need I tell, 25 Right to the wrang did yield; My Donald and his Country fell Upon Culloden field. Ochon, O, Donald, O! Ochon, etc. 30 Nae woman in the warld wide Sae wretched now as me. SMM no. 498 (1796); Hastie MS, f. 161 ochon alas kye cattle yowes ewes bonie knowes fair hillocks woo wool sair sore braw est handsomest waefu’ woeful wrang wrong warld world

Songs and notes

963

344 O, steer her up, an’ haud her gaun Tune: Steer her up

O, steer her up, an’ haud her gaun— Her mither’s at the mill, jo, An’ gin she winna tak a man, E’en let her tak her will, jo. First shore her wi’ a gentle kiss, 5 And ca’ anither gill, jo; An’ gin she tak the thing amiss, E’en let her flyte her fill, jo. O steer her up and be na blate,

The songs of Robert burns

964

An’ gin she tak it ill, jo, 10 Then lea’e the lassie till her fate, And time nae langer spill, jo: Ne’er break your heart for ae rebute, But think upon it still, jo, That gin the lassie winna do’t, 15 Ye’ll fin’ anither will, jo. SMM no. 504 (1803), ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ steer rouse haud hold gaun going mither mother jo sweetheart gin if winna will not e’en even shore offer ca’ call for anither another flyte scold, rail blate diffident lea’e leave till to rebute rebuff Burns’s reconstruction of an old song. Lines 1–4 occur in a song by Ramsay in The TeaTable Miscellany (1724) but the rest of the song is original. The air, which dates from the seventeenth century, is in Margaret Sinkler’s MS (1710) and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion and other collections.

Songs and notes

965

345 Wee Willie Gray an’ his leather wallet Tune: Wee Totum Fogg

Wee Willie Gray an’ his leather wallet, Peel a willie wand to be him boots and jacket: The rose upon the breer will be him trouse and doublet, The rose upon the breer will be him trouse and doublet! Wee Willie Gray, an’ his leather wallet; 5 Twice a lily-flower will be him sark and cravat; Feathers of a flee wad feather up his bonnet, Feathers of a flee wad feather up his bonnet. SMM no. 514 (1803), ‘Written for this Work by R.Burns’

The songs of Robert burns

966

breer brier trouse close-fitting trousers, worn with stockings sark shirt According to Stenhouse, the air is that of a nursery rhyme which Burns must have had in mind,

Wee Totum Fogg Sits upon a creepie; Half an ell o’ gray Wad be his coat and breekie. (Stenhouse (1853) 455) Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, ed. Iona and Peter Opie (Oxford 1951) 516. Stenhouse further asserts that a number of old tunes, including Wee Totum Fogg, The Dusty Miller and Robin Shure in Hairst, ‘have been played in Scotland, time out of mind, as a particular species of “the double hornpipe”’. For an example of Burns’s rehandling of folktale for children, see ‘The Marriage of Robin Redbreast’, A Forgotten Heritage, ed. Hannah Aitken (1973) 107.

Songs and notes

967

346 Guide’en to you, kimmer Tune: We’re a’ noddin

Guide’en to you, kimmer And how do ye do? Hiccup, quo’ kimmer, The better that I’m fou. CHORUS We’re a’ noddin, nid, nid, noddin, 5

The songs of Robert burns

968

We’re a’ noddin at our house at hame! Kate sits i’ the neuk, Suppin hen-broo; Deil tak Kate An’ she be na noddin too! 10 We’re a’ noddin, etc. How’s a’ wi’ you, kimmer, And how do ye fare? A pint o’ the best o’t, And twa pints mair. We’re a’ noddin, etc. How’s a’ wi’ you, kimmer, 15 And how do ye thrive; How mony bairns hae ye? Quo’ kimmer, I hae five. We’re a’ noddin, etc. Are they a’ Johny’s? Eh! atweel no: 20 Twa o’ them were gotten When Johny was awa. We’re a’ noddin, etc. Cats like milk And dogs like broo; Lads like lasses weel, 25 And lasses lads too. We’re a’ noddin, etc. SMM no. 523 (1803), signed B; ‘Corrected by R.Burns’ guide’en good evening kimmer gossip, wife quo’ said fou full neuk corner broo broth

Songs and notes

969

deil devil an if bairns children atweel well Burns has put to new use two stanzas in David Herd’s collection,

Cats like milk and dogs like broo, Lads like lasses and lasses lads too: And they’r a’ nodding, nid nid nodding, They’re a’ nodding at our house at hame. Kate sits i’ the nuik supping her broo, Deil tak Kate, if she does not knou’t too: And they’r a’ nodding, etc. (Hecht 180) He lightly revises these verses, linking them to the comic situation in part of the early dialogue John Anderson my Jo, published by Thomas Percy:

And how doe ze, Cummer? And how hae ze threven? And how maony bairns hae ze? Wom. Cummer, I hae seven. Man. Are they to zour awin gude man? Wom. Na, Cummer, na; For five of them were gotten, quhan he was awa’. (Cromek, Reliques (1765) II 110) Dick comments that the tune ‘probably originated in the street and circulated viva voce until put in the Museum’ (Dick 430).

347 O, ay my wife she dang me Tune: My wife she dang me

The songs of Robert burns

970

CHORUS O, ay my wife she dang me, An’ aft my wife she bang’d me! If ye gie a woman a’ her will, Gude faith! she’ll soon o’ergang ye. On peace an’ rest my mind was bent, 5 And, fool I was! I married; But never honest man’s intent Sae cursèdly miscarried. Some sairie comfort still at last, When a’ thir days are done, man, 10

Songs and notes

971

My pains o’ hell on earth is past, I’m sure o’ bliss aboon, man. O, ay my wife she, etc. SMM no. 532 (1803) dang hit ye you o’ergang overcome sairie sorry, wretched aboon above Johnson describes this song as written by Burns, but it is listed in the Law MS (titles for SMM III) as ‘Mr B—’s old words’. Probably therefore traditional words, revised by Burns. The air is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1754) VI 4.

The songs of Robert burns

972

348 There was a wife wonn’d in Cockpen Tune: Scroggam

There was a wife wonn’d in Cockpen, Scroggam! She brew’d gude ale for gentlemen: Sing auld Cowl, lay you down by me— Scroggam, my dearie, ruffum! 5 The gudewife’s dochter fell in a fever, Scroggam; The priest o’ the parish fell in anither, Sing auld Cowl, lay you down by me, Scroggam, my dearie, ruffum! 10 They laid the twa i’ the bed thegither, Scroggam; That the heat o’ the tane might cool the tither, Sing auld Cowl, lay you down by me,

Songs and notes

973

Scroggam, my dearie, ruffum! 15 SMM no. 539 (1803), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ wonn’d lived tane one tither other A mildly naughty nonsense song, which Burns possibly adapted from a bawdy song in MMC beginning:

There liv’d a wife in Whistle-cockpen, Will ye na can ye na let me be; She brews gude yill for gentlemen, And ay she waggit it wantonlie. ‘Scroggam’ and ‘ruffum’ may derive from crowd cries, English ‘scrag ‘em’ and ‘rough ‘em’; but in a song of this kind a refrain which sounds convincing counts for as much as any meaning which it may originally have had.

The songs of Robert burns

974

349 O gude ale comes, and gude ale goes Tune: The bottom of the punch bowl

CHORUS O gude ale comes, and gude ale goes, Gude ale gars me sell my hose, Sell my hose and pawn my shoon— Gude ale keeps my heart aboon! I had sax owsen in a pleugh, 5 They drew a’ weel eneugh:

Songs and notes

975

I sell’d them a’ just ane by ane— Gude ale keeps my heart aboon. Gude ale hauds me bare and busy, Gars me moop wi’ the servant hizzie, 10 Stand i’ the stool when I hae done, Gude ale keeps my heart aboon. O gude ale comes, and gude ale goes, Gude ale gars me sell my hose, Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon, 15 Gude ale keeps my heart aboon. SMM no. 542 (1803), ‘Corrected by R.Burns’ gars makes shoon shoes aboon up sax six owsen oxen pleugh plough eneugh enough sald sold hauds holds moop kiss hizzie wench According to William Stenhouse, ‘this humorous drinking-song, with the exception of the chorus which is old, was written by Burns’ (Stenhouse (1853) 473). James Johnson, however, was always ready to credit Burns as writer where he had evidence of his authorship. It seems probable that Johnson’s use of ‘Corrected’ in this instance, rather than ‘Written’, is accurate, and that what Burns did was to revise and perhaps add to a traditional drinking song. The air was one he knew from the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I 29 and elsewhere.

The songs of Robert burns

976

350 My lady’s gown, there’s gairs upon’t Tune: My lady’s gown

No traditional song has been identified, but this is probably Burns’s revision and expansion of an older song. He wrote to Johnson in May 1795, ‘“My Lady’s gown and gairs upon’t”—I think I can yet procure’ (Letter 667, Letters II 353). Cunningham comments, The idea of this song is believed to be old, and some of the words also’ (Works of Robert Burns (1834) IV 333). He attributes the air to James Gregg, an Ayrshire musician and virtuoso.

CHORUS My lady’s gown, there’s gairs upon’t, And gowden flowers sae rare upon’t;

Songs and notes

977

But Jenny’s jimps and jirkinet, My lord thinks meikle mair upon’t. My lord a-hunting he is gane, 5 But hounds or hawks wi’ him are nane; By Colin’s cottage lies his game, If Colin’s Jenny be at hame. My lady’s gown, etc. My lady’s white, my lady’s red And kith and kin o’ Cassilis’ blude, 10 But her tenpund lands o’ tocher gude Were a’ the charms his lordship lo’ed. My lady’s gown, etc. Out o’er yon moor, out o’er yon moss, Whare gor-cocks thro’ the heather pass, There wons auld Colin’s bonie lass, 15 A lily in a wilderness. My lady’s gown, etc. Sae sweetly moves her genty limbs, Like music-notes o’ lovers hymns; The diamond-dew in her een sae blue Where laughin love sae wanton swims. 20 My lady’s gown, etc. My lady’s dink, my lady’s drest, The flower and fancy o’ the west; But the lassie that a man loes best, O that’s the lass to mak him blest. My lady’s gown, etc. SMM no. 554 (1803), ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ gairs strips of cloth gowden golden jimps skirts jirkinet ‘substitute for stays, without whalebone’ (Jamieson) tenpund of the annual value of ten pounds

The songs of Robert burns

tocher dowry gor-cocks moorcocks wons dwells genty graceful dink trim, finely dressed

978

Songs and notes

979

351 Sweetest May let love inspire thee Tune: Kinloch of Kinloch

Sweetest May let love inspire thee; Take a heart which he designs thee; As thy constant slave regard it; For its faith and truth reward it. Proof o’ shot to Birth or Money, 5 Not the wealthy, but the bonie; Not high-born, but noble-minded, In Love’s silken band can bind it. SMM no. 559 (1803) Burns’s revision of a song by Ramsay, ‘There’s my Thumb I’ll ne’er beguile thee’ in the Tea-Table Miscellany (1724) I 72. The air, familiar now as the set of the Northumbrian song, Blow the wind southerly, is reported by William Stenhouse to have been communicated by Burns for the Museum (Stenhouse (1853) 486).

The songs of Robert burns

980

352 Jockie’s ta’en the parting kiss Tune: Bonie lass tak a man

Jockie’s ta’en the parting kiss, O’er the mountains he is gane, And with him is a’ my bliss— Nought but griefs with me remain. Spare my luve ye winds that blaw, 5 Plashy sleets and beating rain! Spare my luve thou feath’ry snaw,

Songs and notes

981

Drifting o’er the frozen plain! When the shades of evening creep O’er the day’s fair, gladsome e’e, 10 Sound and safely may he sleep, Sweetly blythe his waukening be. He will think on her he loves, Fondly he’ll repeat her name; For whare’er he distant roves 15 Jockie’s heart is still at hame. SMM no. 570 (1803), ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ blaw blow plashy soaking wet snaw snow waukening wakening hame home An original song by Burns, probably suggested by a song published in 1776:

Jockey’s left me for a while O’er the mountains he’s away; Let him wander free from toil, May his hours be soft and gay. Let not rain, nor rushing rills Now his winding way oppose, Nor piercing winds nor craggy hills Nor hard’ning frost nor fleecy snows… The air Bonie lass tak a man was published in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759) XI 18.

353 O lay thy loof in mine lass Tune: The Cordwainer’s march

The songs of Robert burns

982

CHORUS O lay thy loof in mine lass, In mine lass, in mine lass, And swear on thy white hand lass, That thou wilt be my ain. A slave to love’s unbounded sway, 5 He aft has wrought me meikle wae; But now he is my deadly fae, Unless thou be my ain. O lay thy loof, etc. There’s monie a lass has broke my rest, That for a blink I hae lo’ed best; 10 But thou art queen within my breast For ever to remain. O lay thy loof, etc. SMM no. 574 (1803), signed B; ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’

Songs and notes

983

loof palm wae woe fae foe blink short time, moment Burns sent this song to Johnson some time before May 1795 (Letter 667, Letters II 353). It has been taken as a tribute to Jessie Lewars, who was to nurse Burns during the last few months of his life. The melody, entitled The Cordwainer’s or Shoemaker’s March, is in Aird, Airs (1782) I 176.

The songs of Robert burns

984

354 Cauld is the e’enin blast Tune: Peggy Ramsay

Cauld is the e’enin blast O’ Boreas o’er the pool, And dawin it is dreary

Songs and notes

985

When birks are bare at Yule. O, cauld blaws the e’enin blast 5 When bitter bites the frost, And in the mirk and dreary drift, The hills and glens are lost! Ne’er sae murky blew the night That drifted o’er the hill, 10 But bonie Peg-a-Ramsay Gat grist to her mill. SMM no. 583 (1803), ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ e’enin evening dawin dawn birks birches Yule Christmas mirk dark Burns here contributes to a long tradition of humour about Peggy Ramsay, mentioned by Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night II.iii.71. Dick comments, ‘Whoever Peg was, she had a wide and long reputation on both sides of the Border, and was not burdened with morals’ (Dick 406). There is a ballad about her in Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719–20) V 139–40, beginning

Bonny Peggy Ramsay that any Man may see, And bonny was her Face, with a fair freckel’d Eye, Neat is her Body made, and she hath good Skill. The air seems to have been first published in the Museum.

The songs of Robert burns

986

355 There was a bonie lass Tune: A bonie lass

There was a bonie lass, And a bonie, bonie lass, And she lo’ed her bonie laddie dear; Till war’s loud alarms

Songs and notes

987

Tore her laddie frae her arms 5 Wi’ monie a sigh and a tear. Over sea, over shore, Where the cannons loudly roar; He still was a stranger to fear: And nocht could him quail, 10 Or his bosom assail, But the bonie lass he lo’ed sae dear. SMM no. 586 (1803) Henley and Henderson describe this in the Centenary Burns (1896) as ‘a cento of old catchwords’. The air for which Burns supplied it, is a variant of Pinkie House and was available to him in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) II 21 and in the Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743) I 11.

The songs of Robert burns

988

356 There’s news, lasses, news Tune: There’s news, lasses

There’s news, lasses, news, Gude news I’ve to tell! There’s a boat-fu’ o’ lads Come to our town to sell! CHORUS The wean wants a cradle, 5 An’ the cradle wants a cod, An’ I’ll no gang to my bed Until I get a nod. Father, quo’ she, Mither, quo’ she,

Songs and notes

989

Do what ye can, 10 I’ll no gang to my bed Till I get a man. The wean, etc. I hae as gude a craft rig As made o’ yird and stane; And waly fa’ the ley-crap 15 For I maun till’t again. The wean, etc. SMM no. 589 (1803) wean child cod pillow craft croft, infield rig arable ridge yird earth stane stone waly fa’ good luck to ley-crap the first crop after grass maun must till’t to it Stanzas one and two are a revision of an incomplete song collected by Herd (Hecht 146). The chorus may have been adapted from a nursery song. Burns probably wrote the final stanza, which, as Kinsley points out, is a sustained sexual metaphor. The air is partly based on one in Stewart’s Reels (1762) 36.

357 O, that I had ne’er been married Tune: Crowdie

The songs of Robert burns

990

O, that I had ne’er been married, I wad never had nae care! Now I’ve gotten wife an’ bairns, An’ they cry ‘crowdie’ ever mair. CHORUS Ance crowdie, twice crowdie, 5 Three times crowdie in a day; Gin ye ‘crowdie’ ony mair, Ye’ll crowdie a’ my meal away. Waefu’ Want and Hunger fley me, Glowrin’ by the hallan en’; 10 Sair I fecht them at the door, But ay I’m eerie they come ben. Ance crowdie, etc. SMM no. 593 (1803), ‘Corrected by R.Burns’

Songs and notes

991

bairns children crowdie oatmeal mixed with water and eaten raw; porridge gin if waefu’ woeful fley frighten hallan en’ angle between the partition and the main wall sair sore fecht fight eerie frightened ben indoors Burns’s revision of an old song. He altered the first line of the chorus to ‘Ance crowdie, twice crowdie’, and lines 9–12 are his addition to an ‘old Scots ballad’ in David Herd’s collection (Hecht 112). On 15 December 1793, Burns wrote to Mrs Dunlop, these four months, a sweet little girl, my youngest child, has been so ill, that every day, a week or less threatened to terminate her existence…. There had much need be many pleasures annexed to the states of husband & father, for God knows, they have many peculiar cares.—I cannot describe to you, the anxious, sleepless hours these ties frequently give me. I see a train of helpless little folks; me, & my exertions, all their stay; & on what a brittle thread does the life of man hang! If I am nipt off, at the command of Fate; even in all the vigour of manhood as I am, such things happen every day—Gracious God! what would become of my little flock!—’Tis here that I envy your people of fortune.—A Father on his death-bed, taking an everlasting leave of his children, is indeed woe enough; but the man of competent fortune leaves his sons & daughters, independency & friends; while I—but, my God, I shall run distracted if I think any longer on the Subject!—To leave talking of the matter so gravely, I shall sing with the old Scots ballad ‘O that I had ne’re been married…’ (Letter 605, Letters II 268) The air dates from the seventeenth century.

358 What merriment has taen the Whigs Tune: The German lairdie

The songs of Robert burns

992

What merriment has taen the Whigs, I think they be gaen mad, Sir, Wi’ playing up their Whiggish jigs, Their dancin may be sad, Sir. CHORUS Sing, heedle liltie, teedle liltie, 5 Andum, tandum, tandie; Sing, fal de dal, de dal lal lal, Sing howdle liltie dandie. The Revolution principles Has put their heads in bees, Sir; 10 They’re a’ fa’n out amang themsels, Deil tak the first that grees, Sir. Sing heedle, etc. Hastie MS, f. 144v

Songs and notes

993

deil devil grees agrees Probably Burns’s abridgement of a long political ballad, What Murrain now has ta’en the Whigs. The verses were sent to Johnson, but were not printed in the Museum. The tune is revised by James Dick from Burns’s manuscript (Dick 153).

The songs of Robert burns

994

359 While Prose-work and rhymes Tune: The Campbells are comin

While Prose-work and rhymes

Songs and notes

995

Are hunted for crimes, And things are—the devil knows how; Aware o’ my rhymes, In these kittle times, 5 The subject I chuse is a—. Some cry, Constitution! Some cry, Revolution! And Politicks kick up a rowe; But Prince and Republic, 10 Agree on the Subject, No treason is in a good—. Th’ Episcopal lawn, And Presbyter band, Hae lang been to ither a cowe; 15 But still the proud Prelate, And Presbyter zealot Agree in an orthodox—. Poor Justice, ’tis hinted— Ill natur’dly squinted, 20 The Process—but mum—we’ll allow— Poor Justice has ever For C—t had a favor, While Justice could tak a gude—. Now fill to the brim—25 To her, and to him, Wha willingly do what they dow; And ne’er a poor wench Want a friend at a pinch, Whase failing is only a—. 30 MMC kittle tricky lang long ither each other

The songs of Robert burns

996

cowe terror, hobgoblin dow are able Possibly written at about the same time as no. 223, ‘When Princes and Prelates and hetheaded zealots’. The two songs share Burns’s distinctively earthy point of view, and both would appear to have been set to the same air, The Campbells are comin’.

Songs and notes

997

360 Amang our young lassies there’s Muirland Meg Tune: Saw ye my Eppie McNab

The songs of Robert burns

998

Songs and notes

999

Amang our young lassies there’s Muirland Meg, She’ll beg or she work, and she’ll play or she beg, At thretteen her maidenhead flew to the gate, And the door o’ her cage stands open yet.— Her kittle black een they wad thirl you thro’, 5 Her rose-bud lips cry, kiss me now; The curls and links o’ her bonie black hair, Wad put you in mind that the lassie has mair.— An armfu’ o’ love is her bosom sae plump, A span o’ delight is her middle sae jimp; 10 A taper, white leg, and a thumpin thie, And a fiddle near by, an ye play a wee! Love’s her delight, and kissin’s her treasure; She’ll stick at nae price, an ye gie her gude measure. As lang’s a sheep-fit, and as girt’s a goose-egg, 15 And that’s the measure o’ Muirland Meg. MMC or before thretteen thirteen kittle tricky thirl pierce jimp slender thumpin exceptionally large thie thigh an if fit foot girt great A transcript of ‘Amang our young lasses there’s Muirland Meg’ by Allan Cunningham is in the British Library, and identifies ‘Muirland Meg’ as ‘Meg Hog, “Monkery Meg” as she was generally called, who kept a Baudy house at the Sands of Dumfries—she died in

The songs of Robert burns

1000

1811 or 1812’. Burns would appear to have reworked a traditional song to celebrate ‘Monkery Meg’. On the air, see no. 184, ‘O saw ye my dearie, my Eppie McNab?’.

361 As honest Jacob on a night

As honest Jacob on a night, Wi’ his beloved beauty, Was duly laid on wedlock’s bed, And noddin’ at his duty: Tal de dal, etc. ‘How lang, she says, ye fumblin’ wretch, 5 ‘Will ye be f—g at it? ‘My eldest wean might die of age, ‘Before that ye could get it. ‘Ye pegh, and grane, and groazle there, ‘And mak an unco splutter, 10 ‘And I maun ly and thole you here, ‘And fient a hair the better.’ Then he, in wrath, put up his graith, ‘The deevil’s in the hizzie! ‘I m-w you as I m-w the lave, 15

Songs and notes

1001

‘And night and day I’m bisy. ‘I’ve bairn’d the servant gypsies baith, ‘Forbye your titty Leah; ‘Ye barren jad, ye put me mad, ‘What mair can I do wi’ you. 20 ‘There’s ne’er a m-w I’ve gi’en the lave, ‘But ye ha’e got a dizzen; ‘And d—n’d a ane ye’se get again, ‘Altho’ your c—t should gizzen.’ Then Rachel calm, as ony lamb, 25 She claps him on the waulies, Quo’ she, ‘ne’er fash a woman’s clash, ‘In trowth, ye m-w me braulies. ‘My dear ‘tis true, for mony a m-w, ‘I’m your ungratefu’ debtor; 30 ‘But ance again, I dinna ken, ‘We’ll aiblens happen better.’ Then honest man! wi’ little wark, He soon forgat his ire; The patriarch, he coost the sark, 35 And up and till’t like fire!!! MMC lang long wean child ye you pegh ‘to fetch the breath short as in an asthma’ (Burns) grane groan groazle grunt thole put up with fient a hair not a bit graith penis deevil devil hizzie wench lave rest

The songs of Robert burns

1002

bairn’d got with child gypsies wenches forbye besides titty sister jad hussy dizzen dozen ye’se you shall gizzen wither waulies genitals fash pay heed to clash chatter trowth truth braulies admirably dinna ken don’t know aiblens perhaps wark effort forgat forgot coost threw off sark shirt, chemise till’t to it Bawdy humour which bears the Burnsian stamp. James Mackay comments aptly, ‘A curious safety-valve for the extreme puritanism of Scottish Calvinism has been the abundance of comic—not to say coarse—verse with biblical themes’ (Complete Works (1986) 603).

Songs and notes

1003

362 As I cam down by Annan side Tune: Killiecrankie

As I cam down by Annan side, Intending for the border, Amang the Scroggie banks and braes, Wha met I but a trogger.

The songs of Robert burns

1004

He laid me down upon my back, 5 I thought he was but jokin, Till he was in me to the hilts, The deevil tak sic troggin! What could I say, what could I do, I bann’d and sair misca’d him, 10 But whiltie-whaltie gae’d his a—e The mair that I forbade him: He stell’d his foot against a stane, And doubl’d ilka stroke in, Till I gaed daft amang his hands, 15 O the deevil tak sic troggin! Then up we raise, and took the road, And in by Ecclefechan, Where the brandy-stoup we gart it clink, And the strang-beer ream the quech in. 20 Bedown the bents o’Bonshaw braes, We took the partin’ yokin’; But I’ve claw’d a sairy c—t synsine, O the deevil tak sic troggin! MMC scroggie covered with stunted bushes trogger pedlar deevil devil troggin pack-ware bann’d cursed sair sorely misca’d miscalled whiltie-whaltie up and down stell’d braced stoup measure gart made strang strong ream froth quech two-handled drinking-vessel bedown below yokin coupling

Songs and notes

1005

sairy sorry synsine since then Probably partly traditional. When they were in Annandale together, Burns’s fellow excise-man John Lewars wagered that the poet ‘could not get a word to clink with’ Ecclefechan (see l. 20). The air, named after the battle of Killiecrankie (1689), was traditionally associated with Jacobite songs.

The songs of Robert burns

1006

363 The night it was a haly night

The night it was a haly night, The day had been a haly day; Kilmarnock gleam’d wi’ candle light, As Girzie hameward took her way. A man o’ sin, ill may he thrive! 5 And never haly-meeting see! Wi’ godly Girzie met belyve, Amang the Cragie hills sae hie. The chiel’ was wight, the chiel’ was stark, He wad na wait to chap nor ca’, 10 And she was faint wi’ haly wark, She had na pith to say him na. But ay she glowr’d up to the moon, And ay she sigh’d most piouslie; ‘I trust my heart’s in heaven aboon, 15 ‘Whare’er your sinfu’ p—e be.’ MMC haly holy hameward homeward belyve soon

Songs and notes

1007

amang among sae so hie high chiel’ lad wight strong stark hardy wad na would not ca’ call wark work aboon above Headed ‘A new Song—from an old Story’, as if to indicate that it is Burns’s version of an anti-Puritan jibe. ‘Cragie hills’ (l. 8) are in the parish of Craigie, between Kilmarnock and Tarbolton. The air has not been traced.

The songs of Robert burns

1008

364 There was a jolly gauger, a gauging he did ride Tune: We’ll gang nae mair a rovin’

There was a jolly gauger, a gauging he did ride, And he has met a beggar down by yon river side. CHORUS An’ we’ll gang nae mair a rovin’ wi’ ladies to the wine, When a beggar wi’ her meal-pocks can fidge her tail sae fine, [An’ we’ll gang nae mair a rovin’.] 5

Songs and notes

1009

Amang the broom he laid her; amang the broom sae green, And he’s fa’n to the beggar, as she had been a queen. An’ we’ll gang, etc. My blessings on thee, laddie, thou’s done my turn sae weel, Wilt thou accept, dear laddie, my pock and pickle meal? An’ we’ll gang, etc. Sae blyth the beggar took the bent, like ony bird in spring, 10 Sae blyth the beggar took the bent, and merrily did sing. An’ we’ll gang, etc. My blessings on the gauger, o’ gaugers he’s the chief. Sic kail ne’er crost my kettle, nor sic a joint o’ beef. An’ we’ll gang, etc. MMC gauger exciseman -pocks -bags fidge shake pickle little This bawdy song about an exciseman and a beggar makes use of an anecdote Burns picked up concerning a beggar woman in the Merse. Burns probably based the song on an earlier one with the same tune, whose chorus runs:

And we’ll gang nae mair a roving Sae late into the night, And we’ll gang nae mair a roving, Let the moon shine ne’er sae bright, And we’ll gang nae mair a roving. This occurs in SMM no. 266 (1790). It was to be adapted in a lyric by Byron. The air is also in Ritson, Scotish Songs, 1794.

The songs of Robert burns

1010

365 O wha’ll m—w me now, my jo Tune: Comin’ thro’ the rye

CHORUS O wha’ll m—w me now, my jo, An’ wha’ll m—w me now: A sodger wi’ his bandileers Has bang’d my belly fu’. O, I hae tint my rosy cheek, 5 Likewise my waste sae sma’; O wae gae by the sodger lown, The sodger did it a’. An’ wha’ll, etc. Now I maun thole the scornfu’ sneer O’ mony a saucy quine; 10

Songs and notes

1011

When, curse upon her godly face! Her c—t’s as merry’s mine. An’ wha’ll, etc. Our dame hauds up her wanton tail, As due as she gaes lie; An’ yet misca’s [a] young thing, 15 The trade if she but try. An’ wha’ll, etc. Our dame can lae her ain gudeman, An’ m—w for glutton greed; An’ yet misca’s a poor thing That’s m—n’ for its bread. 20 An’ wha’ll, etc. Alake! sae sweet a tree as love, Sic bitter fruit should bear! Alake, that e’er a merry a—e, Should draw a sa’tty tear. An’ wha’ll, etc. But deevil damn the lousy loun, 25 Denies the bairn he got! Or lea’s the merry a—e he lo’ed To wear a ragged coat! An’ wha’ll, etc. MMC wha’ll who’ll jo sweetheart sodger soldier bandileers bandoliers, testicles fu full tint lost waste waist sma’ slender wae gae by woe befall lown rascal thole endure

The songs of Robert burns

1012

quine girl hauds holds up misca’s miscalls lae ‘lay’, lie down with sa’tty salty deevil devil lea’s leaves This song in the Merry Muses has been attributed to Burns by successive editors on stylistic grounds. It makes use of military terms as sexual metaphors. For the air, see no. 312, ‘Comin’ thro’ the rye, poor body’.

Songs and notes

1013

366 Saw ye my Maggie? Tune: Saw ye my Peggy?

Burns comments

Saw ye nae my Peggy, Saw ye nae my Peggy, Saw ye nae my Peggy, Coming o’er the lea: Sure a finer creature, Ne’er was form’d by Nature; So compleat each feature, So divine is she… This charming song is much older, and indeed superior, to Ramsay’s verses, The Toast, as he called them. There is another set of the words much older still, and which I take to be the original one, but though it has a very great deal of merit it is not quite ladies’ reading. (Notes 4) ‘Saw ye my Maggie’ adds verses by Burns to the bawdy song to which he refers. The Abbotsford MS has a mock-testament in which he bequeaths his words to his friend Alexander Findlater. The air is in Orpheus Caledonius (1733) 37 and SMM no. 11 (1787). Burns’s words, however, best fit the simple early eighteenth-century version of the tune given in various fiddle MSS.

Saw ye my Maggie? Saw ye my Maggie?

The songs of Robert burns

1014

Saw ye my Maggie? Comin oer the lea? What mark has your Maggie? 5 What mark has your Maggie? What mark has your Maggie, That ane may ken her be? My Maggie has a mark, Ye’ll find it in the dark, 10 It’s in below her sark, A little aboon her knee. What wealth has your Maggie, What wealth has your Maggie, What wealth has your Maggie, 15 In tocher, gear, or fee? My Maggie has a treasure, A hidden mine o’ pleasure, I’ll howk it at my leisure, It’s alane for me. 20 How loe ye your Maggie, How loe ye your Maggie, How loe ye your Maggie, An loe nane but she? Ein that tell our wishes, 25 Eager glowing kisses, Then diviner blisses, In holy ecstacy!— How meet you your Maggie, How meet you your Maggie, 30 How meet you your Maggie, When nane’s to hear or see? Heavenly joys before me,

Songs and notes

1015

Rapture trembling o’er me, Maggie I adore thee, 35 On my bended knee!!! MMC sark chemise aboon above tocher dowry gear property howk dig ein eyes

The songs of Robert burns

1016

367 O gie the lass her fairin’, lad Tune: Cauld kail

O gie the lass her fairin’, lad, O gie the lass her fairin’, An’ something else she’ll gie to you,

Songs and notes

1017

That’s waly worth the wearin’; Syne coup her o’er amang the creels, 5 When ye hae taen your brandy, The mair she bangs the less she squeels, An’ hey for houghmagandie. Then gie the lass a fairin’, lad, O gie the lass her fairin’, 10 An’ she’ll gie you a hairy thing, An’ of it be na sparin’; But coup her o’er amang the creels, An’ bar the door wi’ baith your heels, The mair she gets the less she squeels; 15 An’ hey for houghmagandie. MMC fairin’ deserts waly fully wearin’ enjoying syne then coup knock creels baskets taen taken houghmagandie fornication Uninhibited words to match one of Burns’s favourite airs, Cauld kail in Aberdeen. The rhyme on ‘brandy/houghmagandie’ (ll. 6–8) occurs also at the end of The Holy Fair (ll. 240–2).

The songs of Robert burns

1018

368 Fair the face of orient day

Fair the face of orient day, Fair the tints of op’ning rose; But fairer still my Delia dawns, More lovely far her beauty blows. Sweet the Lark’s wild-warbled lay, 5 Sweet the tinkling rill to hear; But, Delia, more delightful still, Steal thine accents on mine ear. The flower-enamour’d busy Bee The rosy banquet loves to sip; 10 Sweet the streamlet’s limpid lapse To the sun-brown’d Arab’s lip; But, Delia, on thy balmy lips Let me, no vagrant insect, rove! O let me steal one liquid kiss! 15 For Oh! my soul is parch’d with love! Stewart’s edition of Burns’s poems (1802)

Songs and notes

1019

Sent to the London Star in May 1789 as the production of ‘a simple ploughman’: ‘your insertion of the inclosed trifle will be succeeded by future communications’ (Letter 343, Letters I 412). Kinsley observes ‘Burns’s authorship is uncertain’ (Commentary 1527).

The songs of Robert burns

1020

369 Heard ye o’ the tree o’ France [Tune: Killiecrankie]

Heard ye o’ the tree o’ France, I watna what’s the name o’t; Around it a’ the patriots dance, Weel Europe kens the fame o’t. It stands where ance the Bastile stood, 5

Songs and notes

1021

A prison built by kings, man, When Superstition’s hellish brood Kept France in leading strings, man. Upo’ this tree there grows sic fruit, Its virtues a’ can tell, man; 10 It raises man aboon the brute, It maks him ken himsel, man. Gif ance the peasant taste a bit, He’s greater than a lord, man, An’ wi’ the beggar shares a mite 15 O’ a’ he can afford, man. This fruit is worth a’ Afric’s wealth, To comfort us ‘twas sent, man: To gie the sweetest blush o’ health, An’ mak us a’ content, man. 20 It clears the een, it cheers the heart, Maks high and low gude friends, man; And he wha acts the traitor’s part It to perdition sends, man. My blessings aye attend the chiel 25 Wha pitied Gallia’s slaves, man, And staw’d a branch, spite o’ the deil, Frae yont the western waves, man. Fair Virtue water’d it wi’ care, And now she sees wi’ pride, man, 30 How weel it buds and blossoms there, Its branches spreading wide, man. But vicious folks aye hate to see The works o’ Virtue thrive, man; The courtly vermin’s banned the tree, 35 And grat to see it thrive, man; King Loui’ thought to cut it down, When it was unco sma’, man; For this the watchman cracked his crown,

The songs of Robert burns

Cut aff his head and a’, man. 40 ***

A wicked crew syne, on a time, Did tak a solemn aith, man, It ne’er should flourish to its prime, I wat they pledged their faith, man. Awa’ they gaed wi’ mock parade, 45 Like beagles hunting game, man, But soon grew weary o’ the trade And wished they’d been at hame, man. For Freedom, standing by the tree, Her sons did loudly ca’, man; 50 She sang a sang o’ liberty, Which pleas’d them ane and a’, man. By her inspired, the new-born race Soon drew the avenging steel, man; The hirelings ran—her foes gied chase, 55 And banged the despot weel, man. Let Britain boast her hardy oak, Her poplar and her pine, man, Auld Britain ance could crack her joke, And o’er her neighbours shine, man. 60 But seek the forest round and round, And soon ‘twill be agreed, man, That sic a tree can not be found, ‘Twixt London and the Tweed, man. Without this tree, alake this life 65 Is but a vale o’ woe, man; A scene o’ sorrow mix’d wi’ strife, Nae real joys we know, man. We labour soon, we labour late, To feed the titled knave, man; 70 And a’ the comfort we’re to get Is that ayont the grave, man.

1022

Songs and notes

1023

Wi’ plenty o’ sic trees, I trow, The warld would live in peace, man; The sword would help to mak a plough, 75 The din o’ war wad cease, man. Like brethren in a common cause, We’d on each other smile, man; And equal rights and equal laws Wad gladden every isle, man. 80 ***

Wae worth the loon wha wadna eat Sic halesome dainty cheer, man; I’d gie my shoon frae aff my feet, To taste sic fruit, I swear, man. Syne let us pray, auld England may 85 Sure plant this far-famed tree, man; And blythe we’ll sing, and hail the day That gave us liberty, man. The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, ed. William and Robert Chambers (1838) watna don’t know gif if chiel lad staw stole deil devil yont beyond grat wept unco sma’ very small aff off syne then aith oath wat know ca’ call sang song ayont beyond trow believe wae woe loon rascal wadna would not halesome wholesome

The songs of Robert burns

1024

shoon shoes syne then This song was first published by Robert Chambers in 1838, ‘from a MS in the possession of Mr James Duncan, Mosesfield, near Glasgow’. Chambers commented, It is far from likely that the whole of the democratic poems of Burns have come down to us…his friends studied rather to conceal than to circulate MSS. that might have brought him into trouble. The song breathes the atmosphere of the early 1790s, when talk of revolution was in the air. Trees of liberty were erected in some Scottish towns, and in the words of Burns’s friend Dr John Moore, were ‘hung round with garlands of flowers, with emblems of freedom and various inscriptions’. Burns does not refer to this song in his correspondence, or elsewhere admit to having written it. The likeliest explanation is that hinted at by Chambers. ‘Heard ye o’ the tree o’ France’ is ‘democratic’ in the specific sense of being openly sympathetic to the aims of the French Revolution. Tory contemporaries would have branded it as ‘Jacobinical’. So marked were the divisions in political opinion at the time in Scotland that Burns—who had a wife and young children to support—simply could not run the risk of being accused of political disloyalty. As things stood, in December 1792 he was denounced to the Excise Board as unpatriotic, and was for a time made to feel extremely anxious by the activities of ‘inquisitorial informers, Spies, Persecutors, &c’ (F.B. Snyder, Life of Robert Burns (1932) 398–9). Had he owned to being the author of ‘The Tree of Liberty’, that single admission could have cost him his job in the Excise. There is an overall resemblance between the strongly democratic views expressed in ‘The Tree of Liberty’ and those of ‘A Man’s A Man’, written in January 1795. The scathing reference to Louis XVI in lines 37–40 calls to mind the comment in Burns’s letter to Mrs Dunlop of 20 December 1794 which led to a serious breach in their friendship: Entre nous, you know my Politics; and I cannot approve of…whining over the deserved fate of a certain pair of Personages.—What is there in the delivering over a perjured Blockhead and an unprincipled Prostitute to the hands of the hangman, that it should arrest for a moment, attention, in an eventful hour. (Letter 649, Letters II 334) Verbal parallels have been noted, e.g. between line 46 ‘like beagles hunting game’ and Burns’s description of the kirk session as ‘holy beagles, the houghmagandie pack’ (Letter 29), and between ‘the titled knave’ (l. 70) and Burns’s contempt for ‘titled knaves’ in his lines on Robert Fergusson (‘Ill-fated Genius! Heaven-taught Fergusson’). No instructions survive as to which tune is intended for this lyric. Killiecrankie has been supplied editorially as suitable in metre and mood, and as being a tune well known to Burns (see no. 49). The lyric would also fit The black watch (see no. 18). Music text © David Johnson 1993.

Songs and notes

1025

370 I maun hae a wife, whatsoe’er she be Tune: Buy broom besoms

I maun hae a wife, whatsoe’er she be; An she be a woman, that’s eneugh for me. CHORUS Buy broom besoms! wha will buy them now; Fine heather ringers, better never grew. If that she be bony, I shall think her right: 5 If that she be ugly, where’s the odds at night? Buy broom, etc. O, an she be young, how happy shall I be! If that she be auld, the sooner she will die. Buy broom, etc. If that she be fruitfu’, O! what joy is there! If she should be barren, less will be my care. 10 Buy broom, etc.

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1026

If she like a drappie, she and I’ll agree; If she dinna like it, there’s the mair for me. Buy broom, etc. Be she green or gray; be she black or fair; Let her be a woman, I shall seek nae mair. Buy broom, etc. Burns Chronicle (1926) maun must an if eneugh enough bony fair auld old drappie drink dinna does not The first of two alternative versions of Broom besoms which exist in holograph, with Burns’s note ‘Same tune—Turn over’. The words are in part traditional. For the air, see no. 285, ‘Wha will buy my Troggin?’.

Songs and notes

1027

371 Young and souple was I, when I lap the dyke Tune: Buy broom besoms

Young and souple was I, when I lap the dyke; Now I’m auld and frail, I douna step a syke. CHORUS Buy broom besoms! wha will buy them now; Fine heather ringers, better never grew. Young and souple was I, when at Lautherslack, 5 Now I’m auld and frail, and lie at Nansie’s back. Buy broom, etc. Had she gien me butter, when she gae me bread, I wad looked baulder, wi’ my beld head. Buy broom, etc. Burns Chronicle (1926)

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1028

souple supple lap leaped dyke dry-stone wall auld old douna cannot syke ditch baulder bolder beld bald The second of two alternative partly traditional versions of Broom Besoms which exist in holograph, with Burns’s note ‘Same tune—Turn over’. For the air, see no. 285, ‘Wha will buy my Troggin?’.

Songs and notes

1029

372 As I cam in by our gate-end

As I cam in by our gate-end, As day was waxen weary, O wha cam tripping down the street But bonnie Peg, my dearie! Her air sae sweet, and shape complete, 5 Wi’ nae proportion wanting, The queen of love did never move Wi’ motion mair enchanting. Wi’ linked hands we took the sands Adown yon winding river; 10 And, oh! that hour, and broomy bower, Can I forget it ever!— Cætera desunt, Edinburgh Magazine (January 1818) Probably Burns’s revision of a longer song, in part perhaps traditional, which was first printed in the Edinburgh Magazine ten years before this version. No tune is named.

The songs of Robert burns

1030

373 Fairest maid on Devon banks Tune: Rothiemurche’s rant

CHORUS Fairest maid on Devon banks, Crystal Devon, winding Devon, Wilt thou lay that frown aside, And smile as thou wert wont to do. Full well thou knowest I love thee dear, 5 Couldst thou to malice lend an ear! O did not Love exclaim, ‘Forbear, Nor use a faithful lover so.’ Fairest maid, etc. Then come, thou fairest of the fair, Those wonted smiles O let me share; 10 And by thy beauteous self I swear,

Songs and notes

1031

No love but thine my heart shall know. SC no. 121 (1801) This was Burns’s last song, sent to George Thomson on 12 July 1796 as English words for Rothiemurche’s Rant, for which he had previously written no. 268, ‘Lassie wi’ the lintwhite locks’. He wrote to Thomson, After all my boasted independance, curst necessity compels me to implore you for five pounds.—A cruel scoundrel of a Haberdasher to whom I owe an account, taking it into his head that I am dying, has commenced a process, and will infallibly put me into jail.—Do, for God’s sake, send me that sum, and that by return of post…upon returning health, I hereby promise and engage to furnish you with five pounds’ worth of the neatest song-genius you have seen.—I tryed my hand on Rothiemurche this morning.—The measure is so difficult that it is impossible to infuse much genius into the lines—they are on the other side.—Forgive, forgive me! (Letter 706, Letters II 389)

Select Bibliography

Abbreviations precede titles cited frequently in the Introduction or Notes.

Source texts of eighteenth-century tunes used by Burns Aird James Aird, A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs, (i) 1782, (ii) 1782, (iii) 1788, (iv, v, vi) 1794–9; undated. Bremner Robert Bremner, A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances, 1757–c. 1761 [14 nos. of 8 pages each, all undated]. CPC The Caledonian Pocket Companion, ed. James Oswald, (i) 1743, (ii) 1745, (iii) 1751, (iv) 1752, (v) 1753, (vi) 1754, (vii) 1755, (viii) 1756, (ix) 1758, (x, xi, xii), 1759; dates approximate. Contains nearly 560 tunes. Craig Adam Craig, Scots Tunes, 1730. McGibbon William McGibbon, A Collection of Scots Tunes, 1742, 1768. McGlashan Alexander McGlashan, A Collection of Strathspey Reels, [1778]; A Collection of Scots Measures, 1781; A Collection of Reels, 1786. Thomson William Thomson, Orpheus Caledonius: A Collection of Scots Songs Set to Music, 1725, 2 vols 1733; reprinted 1962.

Burns and song The Songs of Robert Burns, ed. John Ashmead and John Davison, New York, 1988. Selection of 45 of the best songs. Mary Ellen Brown, Burns and Tradition, 1984. Expert study of Burns’s relationship to folk tradition, including his role as collector and editor of Scottish song. The Life and Works of Robert Burns, ed. Robert Chambers and rev. William Wallace, 4 vols, 1896. Thomas Crawford, Burns: A Study of the Poems and Songs, Edinburgh, 1960, rev. 1965. Thomas Crawford, Society and the Lyric. A study of the song culture of eighteenth-century Scotland, Edinburgh, 1979. Shows in depth how Burns’s songs were the culmination of a rich song tradition. Currie The Works of Robert Burns, ed. James Currie. 4 vols, Liverpool, 1800. David Daiches, Robert Burns, New York, 1950, rev. 1966. Contains a lively chapter on the songs. Catarina Ericson-Roos, The Songs of Robert Burns: A Study of the Unity of Poetry and Music, Uppsala, 1977. Valuable for its emphasis on song as an integrated art form.

Select bibliography

1033

Dick The Songs of Robert Burns, Now First Printed with the Melodies for which they were Written, ed. James C.Dick, London, 1903; reprinted 1962. ICPB Robert Burns’s Commonplace Book, 1783–85, ed. J.C.Ewing and D. Cook, Glasgow, 1938; reprinted, with introduction by D.Daiches, 1965. Egerer J.W.Egerer, A Bibliography of Robert Burns, Edinburgh, 1964. Hecht Songs from David Herd’s Manuscripts, ed. Hans Hecht, Edinburgh, 1904. Herd Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, ed. David Herd, 1776; reprinted, 2 vols, 1869, 1973. Kinsley The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, ed. James Kinsley, 3 vols, Oxford, 1968. Letters The Letters of Robert Burns, ed. J.De Lancey Ferguson and G.Ross Roy, 2 vols, Oxford, 1985. The Complete Works of Robert Burns, ed. James A.Mackay, Alloway, 1986. Burns A–Z: The Complete Word Finder. Compiled and introduced by James A.Mackay. Dumfries, 1990. MMC The Merry Muses of Caledonia, ed. James Barke and S.G.Smith: preface and Burns texts contributed by J.De Lancey Ferguson. Edinburgh, 1959; reprinted, 1982. Notes Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns Written in an Interleaved Copy of ‘The Scots Musical Museum’ with Additions by Robert Riddell and Others, ed. James C.Dick, 1908. Ramsay The Tea-Table Miscellany. A Collection of Choice Songs, ed. Allan Ramsay, Edinburgh, 1724–40. SMM The Scots Musical Museum, ed. James Johnson, 6 vols, Edinburgh, 1787–1803; reissued 1853. (A facsimile reprint of The Scots Musical Museum (1853), is available, with introduction by Donald A.Low, 2 vols, Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1991. A reprint of the Scots Musical Museum (1853), with preface by H.G.Farmer, was issued by Folklore Associates, Hatboro, Pennsylvania, in 1962.) SC A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs for the Voice, ed. George Thomson, 5 vols, 1793– 1818. Stenhouse William Stenhouse, Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1853. The Poetry of Robert Burns, ed. W.E.Henley and T.F.Henderson, 4 vols, 1896. The Centenary Edition. Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy, ed. T.D’Urfey, 6 vols, 1719–20; reprinted 1959.

Musical studies Mary Anne Alburger, Scottish Fiddlers and their Music, London, 1983. Francis Collinson, The Traditional and National Music of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1966. Roger Fiske, Scotland in Music. A European enthusiasm, Cambridge, 1983. John Glen, Early Scottish Melodies, Edinburgh, 1900. David Johnson, Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, Oxford, 1972. David Johnson, Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century. A musical collection and historical study, Edinburgh, 1984. John Purser, Scotland’s Music, Edinburgh, 1992.

Biography and criticism Raymond Bentman, Robert Burns, Boston, 1987. Introductory critical guide. Richard Hindle Fowler, Robert Burns, 1988. Wide-ranging general study.

Select bibliography

1034

R.D.S.Jack and Andrew Noble, eds, The Art of Robert Burns, London, 1982. Includes Iain Crichton Smith, ‘The lyrics of Robert Burns’, Catarina Ericson-Roos, ‘The young lassies: love, music and poetry’, R.D.S.Jack, ‘Burns and bawdy’. Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopaedia, London, 1959, 3rd edn 1980. Useful reference work, by the author of Robert Burns: The Man, His Work, The Legend, London, 1954, rev. 1979. Donald A.Low, ed., Robert Burns: The Critical Heritage, 1974. Includes the first reviews and much early criticism. Donald A.Low, ed., Critical Essays on Robert Burns, 1975. Includes James Kinsley, ‘The music of the heart’, David Daiches, ‘Robert Burns and Jacobite song’, Cedric Thorpe Davie, ‘Robert Burns, writer of songs’. Donald A.Low, Robert Burns, Edinburgh, 1986. Introductory critical guide. Carol McGuirk, Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era, Athens, Georgia, 1985. Authoritative study of Burns’s indebtedness to the ‘Age of Sentiment’. Carol McGuirk, ‘Scottish hero, Scottish victim: myths of Robert Burns’, in The History of Scottish Literature 1660–1800, ed. Andrew Hook, Aberdeen, 1987. James A.Mackay, Burns: A Biography of Robert Burns, Edinburgh, 1992. Detailed new life, which supplies fresh, documented information about the identities of girls celebrated in such songs as 1, 41, 216 and 218. (Biography published too late for inclusion of names in this edition.) David Murison, The Guid Scots Tongue, Edinburgh, 1977. A helpful introductory guide to Lowland Scots, by a former editor of The Scottish National Dictionary, 10 vols, Edinburgh, 1929–76. Franklyn B.Snyder, The Life of Robert Burns, New York, 1932; reprinted Hamden, Conn., 1968.

Appendix 1 Song Arrangements

Peter Davidson

Early accompanied versions of Burns’s songs, a selection of which is given in this appendix, are still relatively little known, and are generally dismissed as having little relevance to serious literary or musical concerns. Yet they include songs in a form published in the poet’s lifetime with his approbation and consent.1 The neglect of these accompanied songs is partly explained by the fact that the music is still in general difficult to find.2 Before attempting to place the accompanied songs in the context of Scottish musical activity in the late eighteenth century, it is necessary to consider briefly why they appear to have fallen foul of a succession of cultural orthodoxies. The misfortunes of song accompaniments began while George Thomson was still publishing the later volumes of his Select Collection in the early nineteenth century. While Thomson has attracted continual posthumous disapproval for diluting music and bowdlerizing texts, it appears, in 1823 at least, that he was resisting a much more radical movement towards genteel simplification. He objects vehemently to The Scottish Minstrel3 with its ‘invisible’ settings and rigorously censored texts: published under the auspices of some canting old maids…the sisterhood…have castrated all the songs ancient and modern in which the dangerous word ‘kiss’ appears…. Is not this unpardonable impudence and folly and a fit subject of reprobation for those connected with the press as guardians of the literary reputation of those who have gone down to the narrow house?4 The comment which his biographer, J.C.Hadden, adds is significant: ‘The Minstrel succeeded because of those very defects which Thomson could not condemn too strongly’.5 It is important to try to understand what had changed in Scottish taste and manners since the appearance of the first volume of the Select Collection in 1793. Part of the changing attitude to the songs can be attributed to an alteration in attitude towards Burns himself; social and cultural changes rendered the ‘national poet’ at the same time an acknowledged genius and something of an embarrassment. It could be argued that, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Scottish society became increasingly and uncomfortably aware of social divisions in language, ‘class’ and

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education. A newly ‘polite’ society does not want to be reminded that it was free-spoken and egalitarian in the recent past.6 Thus the society upon which Johnson and Burns had launched The Scots Musical Museum was irrecoverably altered by 1818 when Thomson was having little success with the sale of volume V of his Select Collection. In this context, it is comprehensible that a socially comforting image of the poet was created, one which cannot accommodate the notion of his being musically literate: the image might be called ‘the inspired ploughboy’. In Robert Anderson’s memoir of Burns, he recalls that— It was…a part of the machinery, as he called it, of his poetical character to pass for an illiterate ploughman who wrote from pure inspiration.7 —and this protective affectation of untutored simplicity provided a convenient myth for those who found proletarian origins and ‘coarseness’ of speech impossible to reconcile with undoubted literary achievement. Thus the image of the poet singing at the plough comes into being, and the songs, therefore, have to assume the status of artless, unaccompanied, ‘traditional’ song: an untutored poet can only be linked with the simplicities of the single-line tune. The songs are consistently treated in their later career as though they were collected folk songs, and either provided with the kinds of accompaniment which collected folk songs are heir to at the hands of those with formal musical training, or else they are accompanied by guitars, penny whistles or whatever instruments are considered at any particular time to be sufficiently vernacular. This is the first of a series of assumptions as to what is ‘authenic’: in neither case is it considered possible that Burns himself could have mastered anything but a monodic line and that therefore the accompaniments which received Burns’s imprimatur are somehow ‘inauthentic’, or can at least be treated as dispensable within the textual history of the songs. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly after 1920, a slightly different orthodoxy begins to form: a different myth which makes Burns a Lawrentian natural man, emasculated by conventional society. In this light, the accompanied versions become dilutions of wild and vital originals, ‘inauthentic’ because tamed for the consumption of a discredited bourgeoisie and gentry.8 Another, and yet more difficult, ideology of ‘authenticity’, particularly as regards folk or ‘traditional’ music, begins to emerge in the 1940s. This holds print to be ‘contamination’, and accords high status to material which has been transmitted orally with as little contact as possible with writing in any form. In this context, issues of authenticity become easily involved with questions of nationalist, linguistic and social politics. Burns’s status is lowered in the estimation of those suspicious of even a ‘stall ballad’ in that he is untrue to the ‘authentic’ tradition into which he was born. Adaptation is a suspect activity, tunes provided with accompaniment are yet more dubious, and thus an enterprise like The Scots Musical Museum is held to be Anglicizing at best in its tendency to make ‘traditional’ material acceptable to the literate in ‘inauthentic’ form. The linguistic aspect is particularly relevant here: one of the most consistent charges levelled against Thomson is that of Anglicizing the songs in his Select

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Collection, assenting to the tacit implication that the Scots language is in some sense an inferior dialect of standard English. The accompanied versions are clearly unacceptable in this context: Scottish culture is being annexed by a centralized internationalism; the ‘arranged’ national songs have a status little higher than the ‘Scotch Songs’ manufactured for the London theatres since the time of Purcell.9 Thus a Scottish song with a more or less mainstream European accompaniment is seen as pandering to central or metropolitan notions of ‘the picturesque’; a betrayal of the merit and integrity which the song had until it left the oral tradition. Through many shifts of attitude, then, these accompanied songs have found little favour with those concerned with national and traditional song, the most frequent accusation levelled against them being ‘inauthenticity’. These versions have never enjoyed a particularly high status with those whose primary concern is with the mainstream of European composed music. It would be injudicious to claim (despite Burns’s enthusiasm10) that Stephen Clarke’s accompaniments for The Scots Musical Museum are, with exceptions, generally more than competent within the style of their time.11 Similarly, the Haydn and Beethoven arrangements, although intermittently of considerable beauty, cannot be said to be among the finest works of those composers. There appears to be an acute problem of category in dealing with these pieces; instrumental and harmonic textures very much of the European mainstream are joined with airs and words which are perceived as distinctly regional and therefore these pieces are generally relegated to the status of encores and curiosities, despite the existence of a few distinguished recordings. (The problem vanishes when Burns is set de novo in German translation: the text becomes as comprehensibly mainstream as the music.12) Despite fluctuating public and critical estimation of the quality or ‘authenticity’ of these early accompanied versions of Burns’s songs, one intractable fact remains: Burns was clearly happy that his songs should be presented to the public in accompanied form. He was virtually the editor of the Scots Musical Museum from volumes II to V and was a willing collaborator in Thomson’s Select Collection. This willingness, it could be argued, is unsurprising, reflecting as it does Scottish musical practice in the eighteenth century (as shared by many levels of what was, on the whole, an egalitarian society) rather than any notion of capitulation to a metropolitan tradition of ‘Scotch Song’.13 A brief retrospective examination of distinctly Scottish musical tradition shows that the Scots Musical Museum has clear precedent for its presentation.14 In a society much more homogeneous than it appears to have become after 1800, these national songs appear to have been the common property of all classes, and there is substantial manuscript and printed evidence to support the contention that accompaniment was a widespread practice, if, obviously, restricted to those who could afford ‘harmonic’ instruments. Simply accompanied folk songs are found in the music book of Robert Edward, minister in Angus in the mid seventeenth century,15 the song book Orpheus Caledonius appeared in 1725, Adam Craig’s A Collection of the Choicest Scottish Tunes in 1730 and Robert Bremner’s Thirty Scots Songs for Voice and Harpsichord in 1757.16 Although a clear opponent of elaborate accompaniment, William Tytler in his Dissertation on the Origins of Scottish Music, allows that simple accompaniment is a widespread practice,

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The proper accompaniment of a Scottish song is a plain, thin, dropping bass on the harpsichord or guitar. The fine breathings, those heartfelt touches…are lost in a noisy accompaniment of instruments.17 Before turning to those ‘noisy instruments’ which, in the brief prosperity of the Edinburgh Musical Society, accompanied national song (and, incidentally, inspired George Thomson to his life’s work), it is worth observing that several Scottish composers had experimented with combinations of traditional and mainstream or composed techniques and textures.18 In one case, a piece by Thomas Erskine, Fifth Earl of Kellie, 1732–81, a Scottish song ‘The Lowlands of Holland’ is used as the foundation of a B-flat ‘Largo’ which employs many of the harmonic and instrumental techniques which were then avant garde in continental music, with an effect which is almost a foreshadowing of some of Haydn’s most successful arrangements.19 The ‘noisy arrangements’ to which Tytler objected were presumably those which accompanied professional singing of Scots songs at the concerts of the Edinburgh musical society. It is curious that the singer who did most to make Scots song popular in the concert halls of Edinburgh and London was an Italian castrato, Ferdinand Tenducci (c. 1735– 90).20 He sang texts from Allan Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany, which had been published in Edinburgh between 1723 and 1737, a work which itself had done much to confirm the place of Scots song in all levels of Scottish society. The arrangements which Tenducci sang were followed in his repertory by others by composers of continental origin. These arrangements are less relevant here than is the fact that it was Tenducci’s singing which appears to have given Thomson the first idea for his Select Collection, At the St. Cecilia concerts I heard Scottish songs sung in a style of excellence far surpassing any idea which I had previously had of their beauty, and that, too from Italians, Signor Tenducci the one…. It was in consequence of my hearing him and Signora Corri sing a number of our songs so charmingly that I conceived the idea of collecting all our best melodies and songs, and of obtaining accompaniments to them worthy of their merit.21 Taking into account this evidence for accompanied song as a common feature of musical life in eighteenth-century Scotland, the Scots Musical Museum and the Select Collection begin to appear as the continuation of one tradition rather than as a wanton interference with another. The compilation of the Scots Musical Museum and its musical qualities have been extensively discussed;22 but some attention must be given to the often-quoted assertion on its title pages, In this Publication the original simplicity of our Ancient National Airs is retained unincumbered with useless Accompaniments and graces depriving the hearers of the sweet simplicity of their native melodies.

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This statement appears to align itself with the position of Tytler: the ‘useless accompaniments and graces’ would appear to be those of galant concert arrangements, such as those sung by Tenducci. Stephen Clarke is perhaps reacting against these concert arrangements in the simplicity of his figured basses. The subsequent obsolescence of the figured bass and the absence of instrumental leads may partially account for the failure of the Scots Musical Museum to hold its position after the 1800s.23 Although these accompaniments may be simple, thus allowing the harpsichordist or pianist some freedom in realization, they have some passages of real merit, where Clarke has responded with sensitivity to the contours of a tune: the delicate suggestions of instrumental imitations of the vocal line in ‘The Gallant Weaver’ (SMM no. 389 (1792)) being one of several instances. The next significant collection (although one published without Burns’s knowledge) was the 1792 volume of William Napier’s The Most Favourite Scots Songs, in which the settings are by Haydn, undertaken partly as an act of charity to the Scottish music-seller who was facing bankruptcy in London. The material with which Napier supplied Haydn was drawn in part from existing printed collections, from Orpheus Caledonius and from the early volumes of the Scots Musical Museum.24 The settings have no instrumental leads and employ a figured bass, but a violin part is added, moving independently of the vocal line. Many of the settings having freshness and originality as well as skill, as though Haydn was enjoying the airs despite their unfamiliarity.25 Burns’s texts also appeared, without his consent but apparently with the agreement of James Johnson, in arrangements by an Italian singer, Pietro Urbani (1749–1816). His Selection of Scottish Songs, published in Edinburgh in six volumes between 1792 and 1804, is presumably intended for the concert hall; the songs, often interesting and sensitive arrangements, are printed in score for string orchestra, although with a keyboard reduction. Some account has already been given of George Thomson’s Select Collection and its origins in his experience of Scottish songs in concert performance. Its aesthetic intention appears wholly comprehensible in the context of 1793: a middle way between the simple basses of the Scots Musical Museum and the complexities of the concert settings. (A continual refrain in Thomson’s letters to his composers is the plea to keep technical demands within the capabilities of amateur performers.) In retrospect it appears that the lack of commercial success which attended the later volumes derives from Thomson’s partial awareness of social and musical change. While he appreciated that society had grown more ‘polite’ and bowdlerized texts accordingly, he failed to appreciate that his musical policy was rooted in eighteenth-century Scottish taste and practice and that the days of ‘the St. Cecilia’s Concerts’ were, by the 1800s, most definitely over.

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1041

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1042

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1043

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1044

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1045

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1046

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1047

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1048

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1049

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1050

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Thomson (1757–1851) was an amateur publisher, the son of a schoolmaster, working himself as Clerk to the Board of Trustees for the Encouragment of Art and Manufactures in Scotland. His publishing was undertaken in his spare time and financed by such capital as he could spare from his salary. He had the advantages as well as the constraints of the amateur publisher: he felt that he was free to revise, cancel and substitute settings; many of the arrangements by Pleyel and Kozeluch in his first two volumes were later replaced by Haydn’s versions. He made these substitutions always in the hope of making his collection finer and therefore more commercially viable. The result is a bibliographical chaos, which still proves an obstacle to the full assessment of Haydn’s and Beethoven’s work for the Select Collection.26 Unfortunately, he also felt able to substitute texts freely, so the later volumes contain all too many insipid verses by poets now forgotten. Burns’s connection with the Select Collection was cut short by his death, but his response to Thomson’s first approach in September 1792 had been enthusiastic. By April 1793, he wrote, You cannot imagine how much this business has added to my enjoyment. What with my early attachment to ballads, your book and ballad-making are now as completely my hobby as fortification was my uncle Toby’s…. In the honest enthusiasm with which I embark in your undertaking, to talk of money, wages, hire etc., would be downright sodomy of soul.27 He only survived to see a few of his songs in print in Thomson’s first volume. Due to the somewhat leisurely way in which Thomson issued the collection (the last volume finally appeared in 1841), he appears still to have had sets of Burns in reserve for the volumes published between 1798 and 1804. Words by Burns were also fitted to the Beethoven arrangements which appeared from 1818 onwards. Thomson’s correspondence with his composers is so thoroughly documented that little need be said here.28 Two points, however, deserve some emphasis. Thomson’s inclination to secure the services of the best Viennese composers says much for his musical taste. His ability to do so is partly due to the inflation which resulted from the Napoleonic wars: money features very prominently in the correspondence,29 summed up in Beethoven’s frank declaration, ‘L’état de nos finances a influence sur tous les artistes’.30 Also Thomson’s practice of sending the airs alone, without words (often the words which he had commissioned were not even begun) added considerably to the complexity of the enterprise, resulting in some complete and a few partial misunderstandings.31 The following indicates the slender contextual guidance which Thomson provided for his composers, The adieux of a lover to his charming mistress—full of pathos, beginning: ‘Once more, enchanting girl, adieu’… The sixth song expresses the despair of a lover.32 Perhaps some of Haydn’s success in his arrangements may be attributed to a recollection of the words which he had set for Napier.33 In a sense, these contacts with Haydn and Beethoven remain elusive: Haydn expressed the courteous hope ‘that with this work I

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shall go on living in Scotland many years after my death’,34 and Beethoven an admiration, influenced by Rousseau and Ossian, for Scotland and for the ‘simplicity’ of the airs.35 Despite this, and despite the warm friendliness of Haydn’s letters to Thomson, it seems that no very real contact was made in these correspondences. Many of these arrangements, however, have considerable claims on our attention, however devious the process of transmission which brought them into being. By the 1840s, the time of the last volume of Thomson’s Select Collection, Burns’s songs were being translated into German by Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810–76) and Wilhelm Gerhard among others. The settings which Schumann and others made of these translations seem remote from the study of the earliest appearances of Burns’s songs. Burns lieder are another subject. Whatever their ultimate merits, and it is possible that the status of these accompanied songs will rise, as Scottish music of the eighteenth century becomes better known in all its diversity, it is necessary to remember that the first accompanied versions appeared with Burns’s consent and approval. They are worthy of our consideration for this reason, as they are at the earliest stage of the printed history of the songs. Despite the varied cultural orthodoxies of which they have fallen foul, they still also deserve our attention for the pieces of real quality which exist in the canon.

Notes to Appendix 1

1 The Scots Musical Museum was published by James Johnson in six volumes from 1787 to 1803; the first volume of George Thomson’s A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs appeared in 1793. 2 This has been recently remedied by the publication of a complete facsimile of SMM introduced by D.A. Low (Aldershot, 1991). The Beethoven and Haydn arrangements for Thomson are still hard of access: the collected editions of neither composer yet contain all these works and the bibliographical complexities of the Select Collection renders the collation of a score of many of the songs a matter of some difficulty. 3 The Scottish Minstrel, ed R.A.Smith, 6 vols (Edinburgh, 1821–4). 4 J.Cuthbert Hadden, George Thomson, the Friend of Burns (London, 1898) 69–70. (Letter, December 1823, from Thomson to Allan Cunningham.) 5 ibid., 71. 6 Proposals for a heavily censored ‘Family Burns’ proceeded from the circle associated with The Scottish Minstrel, ibid., 70–1. 7 Robert Anderson, Letters to Currie (1799), Burns Chronicle (1925) 8–19; quoted in James Kinsley, The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (Oxford, 1968) 1537. 8 The poet and polymath John Leyden had disapproved of the unnecessary sophistication of airs ‘which had been under the hands of a composer’ as early as 1801. Preliminary Dissertation to the Complaynt of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1801). 9 Cf. Roger Fiske, Scotland in Music (Cambridge, 1983) 1–29. 10 Cf. SMM, introduced D.A.Low (Aldershot, 1991) I 25. 11 Fiske points out occasional inspiration and originality, as in the harmonization with a 7th of the conclusion of ‘I had a horse’ (SMM no. 185); Fiske, op. cit., 219. 12 Fiske, op. cit. 156–69, 210–13.

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13 This brief survey cannot hope to unravel completely these large questions of ‘authenticity’ and ‘simplicity’, ‘national’ and ‘traditional’ song. These questions obviously have a particular difficulty in a Scottish context: even the critical works cited retain a degree of uncertainty. The reader’s attention is drawn to the ‘art songs’ in the body of the text, by Masterton and by Schetky for further evidence of Burns’s musical sophistication. 14 Any treatment of this subject is inevitably indebted to David Johnson, Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1972). I am further indebted to Dr Johnson for permission to cite his unpublished edition of the Earl of Kellie’s ‘Largo’ and for much advice on many topics touching Scottish music. 15 NLS MS 9450. 16 For these, and for information on Scots Airs, vocal and instrumental, cf. Johnson, op. cit. 16– 19, 51–63, and also David Johnson, Scottish Fiddle Music in the Eighteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1983). 17 William Tytler, Dissertation in Joseph Ritson’s Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1794); quoted in Kinsley, op. cit., III 986n. 18 Cf. David Johnson, Scottish Fiddle Music in the Eighteenth Century, particularly 34–63, 192–211. 19 NLS MS 1782 (c. 1770) ed. David Johnson (unpublished). 20 Cf. Fiske, op. cit, 25–7, who also discusses those arrangements by J.C.Bach (1735–82) which Tenducci sang. 21 Hadden, op. cit, 20. 22 SMM, introduction by D.A.Low (Aldershot, 1991) 11–22 and David Johnson, Music and Society 148–9. 23 Johnson, op. cit, Music and Society 148–9. 24 Compare, for example, the versions of ‘The White Cockade’: the verbal text is given almost character for character, although Haydn differs from Clarke in the vocal line particularly at bars 6 and 14 of the song proper. 25 Haydn did not seem to relish the ‘Scotch Song’ of the London theatres. Cf. The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks of Joseph Haydn, ed. H.C.Robbins Landon (London, 1959) 294–5. 26 Cf. note to songs 8, 9, 10 below. 27 Hadden, op. cit, 141. 28 Cf. Hadden, op. cit, 292–355; Fiske, op. cit., 59–79. 29 Cf., for example, The Letters of Beethoven, ed. Emily Anderson (London, 1961) I 98; I 108; I 154; I 247. 30 ibid., I 330. 31 ‘Musing on the Roaring Ocean’ would surely have been set differently had the words been available. 32 Hadden, op. cit., 328. 33 Although the distance from Burns himself is considerable, it should be noted that the Edinburgh music seller William Whyte commissioned yet another set of arrangements from Haydn in 1802–4. These appeared in Whyte’s Collection of Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1804, 1807): it is unsurprising that the elderly Haydn, facing the same air sometimes for the third time, appears to have farmed much of this work out to his pupils. Cf. Fiske, op. cit., 69–71. 34 The Collected Correspondence of Joseph Haydn 195. 35 The Letters of Beethoven II 88.

Appendix 2 Attributions in The Scots Musical Museum

The Scots Musical Museum was issued between 1787 and 1803 in six parts (or ‘volumes’) containing one hundred songs each. The dates of original publication are: I, May 1787; II, February 1788; III, February 1790; IV, August 1792; V, December 1796; VI, June 1803. Johnson engraved the songs on pewter, which meant that he was able to re-issue early volumes according to demand. When he brought out re-issues, he had the habit of altering title and index pages. (For full bibliographical details, see J.W.Egerer, A Bibliography of Robert Burns (Edinburgh, 1964) 18–27, 357–60.) Whereas early issues of I–V are ‘Humbly dedicated to the Catch Club instituted at Edinr. June 1771’, volume VI (1803), and re-issues of all volumes thereafter, are dedicated instead to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland—founded in 1780—and there is an accompanying claim that ‘In this Publication the original Simplicity of our ancient national Airs is retained unincumbered with useless Accompaniments & Graces depriving the Hearers of the sweet Simplicity of their native Melodies’. Most of Burns’s contributions were published anonymously during his life-time: only a small number of songs were attributed to him in the index of successive volumes of the Museum. From volume II onwards, Burns and Johnson used a cryptic system of initials, which appears to have been modelled on Allan Ramsay’s practice in the Tea-Table Miscellany (4 vols, 1723–37). Compare Ramsay’s ‘The Songs marked C, D, H, L, M, O, &c. are new Words by different Hands; X, the Authors unknown; Z, old Songs; Q, old Songs with Additions’ with a Note in the index to volume II of the Museum: ‘Songs marked B. R. X. &c. are originals by different hands, but all of them Scots gentlemen, who have favoured the Editor, and the Public at large, with their compositions: these marked Z. are old verses, with corrections or additions’. In a letter of 13 November 1788 to his friend Mrs Dunlop, Burns noted that he alone knew all the cyphers, and continued: ‘—Those marked Z. I have given to the world as old verses to their respective tunes; but in fact, of a good many of them, little more than the Chorus is ancient; tho’ there is no reason for telling everybody this piece of intelligence’ (Letter 285, Letters I 337). In volumes V and VI, and in re-issues after the poet’s death, Johnson made use of the words ‘Written for this Work by Robert Burns’ beneath the titles of those songs which he knew to be Burns’s work. Subsequent editors, including Stenhouse, Dick and Kinsley, have revised his attributions.

Appendix 3 Two Early Songs

Among the entries in the First Commonplace Book (ICPB 41–3) are two song experiments dating from 1781–2, ‘Though fickle Fortune has deceiv’d me’ and ‘O raging Fortune’s withering blast’:

Though fickle Fortune has deceiv’d me, She promis’d fair and perform’d but ill; Of Mistress, friends, and wealth bereav’d me, Yet I bear a heart shall support me still.— I’ll act with prudence as far’s I’m able, 5 But if success I must never find, Then come Misfortune, I bid thee welcome, I’ll meet thee with an undaunted mind.— Burns describes this in ICPB as ‘A Fragment in imitation of an old song, well known among the Country Ingle sides. I cannot tell the name, neither of the Song nor the Tune’, but ‘one verse has lighted up my flame a thousand times—

When clouds in skies do come together To hide the brightness of the sun, There will surely be some pleasant weather When a’ thir storms are past and gone.’ His own lines are ‘an extempore under the pressure of a heavy train of misfortunes, which, indeed, threatened to undo me altogether…my poor, country Muse, who, all rustic, akward, and unpolished as she is, has more charms for are than any other of the pleasures of life beside—as I hope she will not then desert me, I may, even then, learn to be, if not happy, at least easy, and south a sang to sooth my misery.’ The first stanza of his song is adapted from lines 13–16 of no. 3, written when he was 17.

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Also dating from his troubled spell in Irvine in 1781–2 is

O raging Fortune’s withering blast Has laid my leaf full low! O O raging Fortune’s withering blast Has laid my leaf full low! O My stem was fair my bud was green 5 My blossom sweet did blow; O The dew fell fresh, the sun rose mild, And made my branches grow; O But luckless Fortune’s northern storms Laid a’ my blossoms low, O 10 But luckless Fortune’s northern storms Laid a’ my blossoms low, O Burns comments in a Commonplace Book entry dated September 1785: I set about composing an air in the old Scotch style.—I am not Musical Scholar enough to prick down my tune properly, so it can never see the light, and perhaps ‘tis no great matter, but the following were the verses I composed to suit it.—The tune consisted of three parts so that the above verses just went through the whole Air.— ‘O raging Fortune’s withering blast’ is the only recorded instance of a song to a tune composed by Burns.

Sources of Illustrations

The illustrations reproduced in this book are taken from: The Land of Burns: A Series of Landscapes and Portraits, by Robert Chambers and Professor Wilson, landscapes by D.O.Hill, vol. 1, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, 1840. The National Burns, edited by George Gilfillan, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. The title page from The Scots Musical Museum is taken from volume 4, 1792. The facsimile music reproduced in Appendix 1 is reprinted by permission of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (pages 935 to 944) and the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland (violin part on page 940; violin and ‘cello parts on pages 942 to 944).

Index of First Lines

Numbers refer to song numbers

A highland lad my love was born 34 A rosebud, by my early walk 87 A’ the lads o’ Thornie-bank 59 Adown winding Nith I did wander 242 Ae fond kiss, and then we sever! 166 Aften hae I play’d at the cards and the dice 327 Again rejoicing Nature sees 47 Ah, Chloris, since it may not be 269 Altho’ my back be at the wa’ 335, 336 Altho’ my bed were in yon muir 13 Amang our young lassies there’s Muirland Meg 360 Amang the trees where humming bees 55 An’ O, for ane-and-twenty, Tam! 192 An’ O my Eppie 147 Ance mair I hail thee, thou gloomy December! 165 And I’ll kiss thee yet, yet 89 Anna, thy charms my bosom fire 67 As down the burn they took their way 247 As honest Jacob on a night 361 As I cam down by Annan side 362 As I cam down by yon Castle wa’ 180 As I cam in by our gate-end 372 As I came o’er the Cairney mount 329 As I stood by yon roofless tow’r 307 As I was a wand’ring ae midsummer e’enin 188 As I went out ae May morning 213 As late by a sodger I chanced to pass 144 Awa, Whigs, awa! 143 Awa wi’ your witchcraft o’ Beauty’s alarms 300 Ay, waukin, O 127 Bannocks o’ bear meal 333 Behind yon hills where Stinchar flows 4 Behold, my love, how green the groves 272

Index of first lines Behold the hour, the boat arrive! 250 Blythe, blythe and merry was she 60 Blythe hae I been on yon hill 235 Bonie lassie, will ye go, will ye go, will ye go? 54 Bonie wee thing, canie wee thing 186 Braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes 225 But lately seen in gladsome green 265 By Allan stream I chanc’d to rove 243 By yon castle wa’ at the close of the day 159 Ca’ the yowes to the knowes 64, 260 Carl, an the king come 139 Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west 74 Cauld is the e’enin blast 354 Clarinda, mistress of my soul 91 Come boat me o’er, come row me o’er 85 Come, let me take thee to my breast 244 Come rede me, dame, come tell me, dame 110 Comin thro’ the rye, poor body 312 Contented wi’ little and cantie wi’ mair 273 Dire was the hate at old Harlaw 299 Does haughty Gaul invasion threat? 278 Dost ask me, why I send thee here 248 Duncan Gray cam here to woo 222 Fair the face of orient day 368 Fairest maid on Devon banks 373 Farewell, thou fair day, thou green earth, and ye skies 163 Farewell, thou stream that winding flows 231 Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong 70 Fate gave the word—the arrow sped 101 First when Maggie was my care 103 Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes 112 Frae the friends and land I love 170 From thee, Eliza, I must go 8 Fy, let us a’ to Kirkcudbright 283 Gane is the day and mirk’s the night 175 Gat ye me, O, gat ye me 315 Gie my Love brose, brose 29 Go, fetch to me a pint o’ wine 106 Go on, sweet bird, and soothe my care 88 Green grow the rashes, O 23, 45 Green sleeves and tartan ties 122 Grim Grizzel was a mighty Dame 303 Guide’en to you, kimmer 346 Had I a cave on some wild, distant shore 240 Had I the wyte, had I the wyte 311

1059

Index of first lines He clench’d his pamphlets in his fist 49 Heard ye o’ the tree o’ France 369 Hee balou, my sweet wee Donald 332 Her Daddie forbad, her Minnie forbad 73 Here awa, there awa, wandering Willie 224 Here is the glen, and here the bower 257 Here’s a health to ane I lo’e dear 301 Here’s a health to them that’s awa 219 Here’s to thy health, my bonie lass 341 Hey, the Dusty Miller 75 How can my poor heart be glad 259 How cruel are the parents 289 How lang and dreary is the night 263 How pleasant the banks of the clear-winding Devon 63 Husband, husband, cease your strife 255 I am a bard, of no regard 37 I am a son of Mars, who have been in many wars 31 I am my mammy’s ae bairn 69 I coft a stane o’ haslock woo 319 I do confess thou art sae fair 178 I dream’d I lay where flowers were springing 3 I gaed a waefu’ gate yestreen 100 I hae a wife o’ my ain 190 I hae been at Crookieden 182 I maun hae a wife, whatsoe’er she be 370 I murder hate by field or flood 304 I once was a maid tho’ I cannot tell when 32 I sing of a Whistle, a Whistle of worth 118 I’ll ay ca’ in by yon town 326 I’ll tell you a tale of a Wife 120 In comin by the brig o’ Dye 58 In Edinburgh town they’ve made a law 254 In Mauchline there dwells six proper young Belles 20 In simmer, when the hay was mawn 198 In Tarbolton, ye ken, there are proper young men 19 Is there for honest poverty? 276 Is this thy plighted, fond regard 271 It is na, Jean, thy bonie face 183 It was a’ for our rightfu’ king 342 It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral 207 It was upon a Lammas night 7 Ithers seek they kenna what 206 Its up wi’ the Souters o’ Selkirk 320 Jamie, come try me 135 Jockie’s ta’en the parting kiss 352 John Anderson my jo, John 142 Ken ye ought o’ Captain Grose? 158

1060

Index of first lines

Landlady, count the lawin 80 Lang hae we parted been 130 Lassie, lend me your braw hemp heckle 298 Lassie wi’ the lintwhite locks 268 Last May a braw wooer cam down the lang glen 293 Let me ryke up to dight that tear 35 Let not Woman e’er complain 264 Long, long the night 281 Loud blaw the frosty breezes 57 Louis, what reck I by thee 108 Lovely was she by the dawn 267 Mark yonder pomp of costly fashion 290 Meet me on the warlock knowe 245 Musing on the roaring ocean 82 My bonie lass, I work in brass 36 My father was a farmer upon the Carrick border O 12 My girl she’s airy, she’s buxom and gay 24 My Harry was a gallant gay 52 My heart is a-breaking, dear Tittie 104 My heart is sair—I darena tell 318 My heart is wae, and unco wae 65 My heart was ance as blythe and free 68 My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here 141 My lady’s gown, there’s gairs upon’t 350 My love, she’s but a lassie yet 133 My love was born in Aberdeen 146 My Peggy’s face, my Peggy’s form 61 My Sandy gied to me a ring 124 My wife’s a wanton wee thing 129 Nae gentle dames, tho’ ne’er sae fair 41 No Churchman am I for to rail and to write 15 Now in her green mantle blythe Nature arrays 274 Now nature hangs her mantle green 155 Now Spring has clad the grove in green 292 Now westlin winds and slaught’ring guns 2 O, ay my wife she dang me 347 O, bonie was yon rosy brier 296 O, cam ye here the fight to shun 148 O can ye labor lea, young man? 211 O, dear minny, what shall I do? 138 O for my ain king, quo’ gude Wallace 337 O, Galloway Tam cam here to woo 179 O gie the lass her fairin’, lad 367 O gude ale comes, and gude ale goes 349 O, how can I be blythe and glad? 177 O, how shall I, unskilfu’, try 164

1061

Index of first lines O, I am come to the low countrie 343 O I forbid you, maidens a’ 310 O John, come kiss me now, now, now 172 O, ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? 234 O, Kenmure’s on and awa, Willie 193 O, Lady Mary Ann looks o’er the castle wa’ 203 O lay thy loof in mine, lass 353 O, leave novels, ye Mauchline belles 21 O, leeze me on my spinnin-wheel 194 O, let me in this ae night 279 O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide 236 O lovely Polly Stewart 331 O, luve will venture in where it daur na weel be seen 201 O Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet 95 O Mary, at thy window be 17 O May, thy morn was ne’er sae sweet 328 O, meikle thinks my luve o’ my beauty 174 O, merry hae I been teethin a heckle 145 O, mirk, mirk is this midnight hour 227 O, mount and go 136 O my Luve’s like a red, red rose 258 O once I lov’d a bonnie lass 1 O, open the door some pity to shew 229 O Philly, happy be that day 270 O poortith cauld, and restless love 226 O, rattlin, roarin Willie 90 O sad and heavy should I part 324 O, saw ye bonie Lesley? 168 O, saw ye my dear, my Philly? 262 O saw ye my dearie, my Eppie McNab? 184 O, sing a new Song to the L----! 113 O stay, sweet warbling woodlark stay 286 O, steer her up, an’ haud her gaun 344 O, that I had ne’er been married 357 O that I were where Helen lies 77 O thou pale Orb that silent shines 40 O Tibbie, I hae seen the day 5 O, wat ye wha that lo’es me 297 O wat ye wha’s in yon town 280 O were I on Parnassus hill! 97 O, were my love yon lilac fair 237 O, wert thou in the cauld blast 302 O wert thou, Love, but near me 291 O, wha my babie-clouts will buy 30 O wha will to Saint Stephen’s house 94 O wha’ll m-w me now, my jo 365 ‘O, whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock?’ 50 O, when she cam ben, she bobbed fu’ law! 191 O, where hae ye been Lord Ronald, my son? 181 O, whistle an’ I’ll come to ye, my lad! 241 O why the deuce should I repine 11 O Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut 115

1062

Index of first lines O, wilt thou go wi’ me, sweet Tibbie Dunbar? 125 Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw 96 O, ken ye what Meg o’ the Mill has gotten? 233 On a bank of flowers in a summer day 132 On Cessnock banks a lassie dwells 10 One night as I did wander 6 Orthodox, orthodox, who believe in John Knox 114 Our lords are to the mountains gane 171 Our young lady’s a huntin gane 313 Out over the Forth, I look to the north 160 Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare 123 Raving winds around her blowing 81 Robin shure in hairst 109 Sae flaxen were her ringlets 261 Saw ye my Maggie? 366 Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled 246 See the smoking bowl before us 38 Sensibility how charming 156 She is a winsome wee thing 217 She’s fair and fause that causes my smart 214 Should auld acquaintance be forgot 105 Sir John Cope trode the north right far 137 Sir Wisdom’s a fool when he’s fou 33 Sleep’st thou, or wak’st thou, fairest creature? 266 Stay, my charmer, can you leave me? 71 Streams that glide in orient plains 56 Sweet closes the evening on Craigieburn-wood 169 Sweet fa’s the eve on Craigieburn 277 Sweetest May let love inspire thee 351 The auld man’s mare’s dead 338 The bairns gat out wi’ an unco shout 212 The bonniest lad that e’er I saw 330 The Campbells are comin, Oho! Oho! 154 The cares o’ Love are sweeter far 107 The Catrine woods were yellow seen 28 The day returns, my bosom burns 99 The deil cam fiddlin thro’ the town 215 The gloomy night is gath’ring fast 43 The heather was blooming, the meadows were mawn 66 The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill 102 The lovely lass of Inverness 306 The night it was a haly night 363 The noble Maxwells and their powers 121 The Ploughman he’s a bony lad 79 The Robin cam to the Wren’s nest 308 There’s sax eggs in the pan, gudeman 309

1063

Index of first lines The Shepherd’s wife cries o’er the knowe 196 The small birds rejoice in the green leaves returning 93 The smiling Spring comes in rejoicing 208 The sun he is sunk in the west 16 The taylor fell thro’ the bed 126 The taylor he cam here to sew 339 The Thames flows proudly to the sea 98 The weary pund, the weary pund 189 The winter it is past 92 The wintry west extends his blast 9 Their groves o’ sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon 287 There grows a bonie brier-bush in our kail-yard 340 There liv’d a man in yonder glen 197 There lived a carl in Kellyburn braes 205 There was a battle in the north 187 There was a bonie lass 355 There was a jolly gauger, a gauging 364 There was a lad was born in Kyle 48 There was a lass and she was fair 238 There was a lass, they ca’d her Meg 76 There was a wife wonn’d in Cockpen 348 There was five Carlins in the South 116 There was on a time, but old Time was then young 111 There was three kings into the east 14 There was twa wives, and twa witty wives 167 There’s a youth in this city, it were a great pity 140 There’s auld Rob Morris that wons in yon glen 221 There’s news, lasses, news 356 There’s three true gude fellows 322 Thickest night, surround my dwelling! 53 Thine am I, my Chloris fair 252 This is no my ain lassie 295 Tho’ cruel fate should bid us part 44 Tho’ women’s minds, like winter winds 152 Thou hast left me ever, Jamie 249 Thou ling’ring star with less’ning ray 119 Tibbie Fowler o’ the glen 321 To daunton me, to daunton me 83 True-hearted was he, the sad swain o’ the Yarrow 230 Turn again, thou fair Eliza! 199 Twa bonie lads were Sandy and Jocky 149 Twas even—the dewy fields were green 39 ’Twas in the seventeen hunder year 284 ’Twas na her bonie blue e’e was my ruin 288 ’Twas on a Monday morning 314 ’Twas past one o’-clock in a cauld frosty morning 134 Up, and warn a’, Willie 86 Up and waur them a’, Jamie 117 Up wi’ the carls o’ Dysart 210

1064

Index of first lines Wae is my heart, and the tear’s in my e’e 334 Wap and rowe, wap and rowe 325 We’ll hide the cooper behint the door 316 Weary fa’ you, Duncan Gray 78 Wee Willie Gray, an’ his leather wallet 345 ‘Wha is that at my bower-door?’ 185 Wha will buy my troggin? 285 Wham will we send to London town 282 Whare are you gaun, my bonie lass? 151 Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad? 153 Whare live ye, my bonie lass? 195 What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassie? 176 What merriment has taen the Whigs 358 What will I do gin my Hoggie die? 72 When chill November’s surly blast 26 When first I came to Stewart Kyle 22 When first my brave Johnie lad came to this town 173 When Guilford good our pilot stood 18 When Januar’ wind was blawin cauld 323 When maukin bucks, at early f—s 275 When o’er the hill the e’ening star 220 When Mary cam over the Border 253 When Princes and Prelates and het-headed zealots 223 When rosy May comes in wi’ flowers 131 When wild war’s deadly blast was blawn 232 Where are the joys I hae met in the morning? 251 Where braving angry winter’s storms 62 Where Cart rins rowin to the sea 209 While larks with little wing 239 While Prose-work and rhymes 359 Why, why tell thy lover? 294 Will ye go the Indies, my Mary? 216 Will ye go to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay? 317 Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed 202 Wilt thou be my dearie? 256 Ye banks and braes and streams around 218 Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon 162 Ye flowery banks o’ bonie Doon 161 Ye gallants bright, I red you right 128 Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear! 200 Ye jovial boys who love the joys 25 Ye sons of old Killie 46 Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine 157 Yon wild, mossy mountains sae lofty and wide 51 You’re welcome to Despots, Dumourier 228 You’re welcome, Willie Stewart 305 Young and souple was I, when I lap the dyke 371 Young Jockie was the blythest lad 150 Young Peggy blooms our boniest lass 27 Your friendship much can make me blest 84

1065

Index of Tunes

Afton Water 112 Aileen a roon 228, 239, 240 Alace yat I came owr the moor 231 Allan Water 243 An gille dubh ciar dubh 71 An ye had been where I hae been 153 Andro and his cutty gun 60 As I cam down, etc. 180 As I went out, etc. 213 Auld lang syne 105 Auld man’s mare’s dead, The 338 Auld Rob Morris 221 Auld Sir Symon 33, 120 Awa, Whigs, awa! 143 Ay, waukin, O 127, 281 Bab at the bowster 316 Balin a mone 300 Banks of Banna 157 Banks of Spey 84 Bashful lover, The 132 Bhannerach dhon na chri 63 Birks of Abergeldie, The 54 Black Joke 24 Black watch, The 18 Blue ey’d lassie, The 100 Bob o’ Dumblane, The 298 Bonie Ann 128 Bonie Bell 208 Bonie Dundee 20, 50, 230 Bonie lad that’s far awa, The 177 Bonie lass tak a man 352 Bonie brier-bush, The 340 Bonie wee thing 186 Bonny Mary 67 Bonie lass, A 355 Bottom of the punch bowl, The 349

Index of tunes Braes o’ Ballochmyle, The 28 Braes o’ Balquhidder 89 Brave lads of Galla Water, The 225 Butcher boy, The 10 Buy broom besoms 285, 370, 371 Ca’ the yowes 64, 260 Caledonian Hunt’s delight 111, 162, 294 Cambdelmore 161 Cameronian rant 148 Campbells are comin, The 154, 223, 359 Captain Cook’s death 119 Captain O’Kane 93 Captain’s lady, The 136 Cardin o’t, The 319 Carl, an the king come 139 Carron side 170 Cauld kail 226, 244, 367 Charles Graham’s welcome hame 160 Charlie, he’s my darling 314 Chevy chase 116, 123 Children in the wood, The 284 Clout the caudron 25, 36 Cock up your beaver 173 Cold frosty morning 134 Collier’s bonie lassie, The 168 Come kiss with me 311 Come, let us prepare 114 Comin’ thro’ the rye 365 Cordwainer’s march, The 353 Corn rigs 7 Cornwallis’s lament 156 Country lass, The 187, 198 Craigie-burn Wood 169, 277 Crowdie 357 Cuckoo, The 178 Cumnock Psalms 307 Dainty Davie 48, 245, 267 Dalkeith Maiden Bridge 324 De’il tak the Wars 266, 290 Deuks dang o’er my daddie, The 212 Down the burn, Davie 247 Dragon of Wantley, The 299 Druimionn dubh 82, 171 Drummer, The 339 Duncan Davison 17 Duncan Gray 78, 222, 264 Dusty miller 75 Earl of Glencairn’s, The 369

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Index of tunes East Indian air 265 Eppie Adair 147 Eppie McNab 184 Ettrick Banks 39 Ewe-bughts Marion 216 Fee him father, fee him 249 Finlayston house 101 For a’ that, an’ a’ that 37, 152, 276, 282 For the sake o’ Somebody 318 French 113 Fy, let us a’ to the bridal 283 Gaelic Air, A 199, 263 Galla Water 13 Gallant weaver, The 209 Galloway Tam 179 Gardener’s march, The 131 German lairdie, The 358 Gilderoy 8 Gin my love were yon red rose 237 Go from my window, love, do 16 Good night and joy by wi’ you a’ 42 Gray 222 Green grow the rashes, O 23, 45 Green sleeves 122 Gude Wallace 337 Gudewife, count the lawin 175 Hemp-dresser, The 215 Here awa, there awa 224 Here’s a health to them that’s awa 219, 301 Hey ca’ thro’ 210 Hey tutti, taiti 80, 246 Highland balou, The 332 Highland laddie, The 330 Highland lassie, The 329 Highland widow’s lament, The 343 Highlander’s lament 52 Highway to Edinburgh, The 174 Humors of Glen 287 I dream’d I lay 3 I had a horse, and I had nae mair 22 I hae a wife o’ my ain 190 I love my love in secret 124 I rede ye beware o’ the ripells young man 126 I wish my love were in a mire 296 I’ll gae nae mair to yon town 280, 326 I’ll mak you be fain to follow me 144

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Index of tunes I’m o’er young to marry yet 69 Invercauld’s Reel 5 Jack Latin 315 Jamie, come try me 135 Jenny’s lamentation 149 Job of journey work, The 335, 336 Jocky fou and Jenny fain 206 Jockey’s gray breeks 47 Jockie was the blythest lad 150 John Anderson my jo, John 6, 142, 289 John, come kiss me now 172 Johnie Blunt 197 Jonie Cope 137 Johnny McGill 125 Jolly mortals, fill your glasses 38 Jumpin John 73 Kellyburn braes 205 Kenmure’s on and awa 193 Killiecrankie 49, 94, 362, 369 Killogie, The 333 King of France he rade a race, The 55 Kinloch of Kinloch 351 Laddie lie near me 130, 288 Lads of Leith, The 214 Lady Catherine Ogie 218 Lady Mary Ann 203 Laggan burn 341 Lament for Abercairney 62 Lass, an I come near thee 185 Lass that made the bed to me, The 323 Lazy mist, The 102 Leezie Lindsay 317 Lenox love to Blantyre 302 Let me in this ae night 291 Loch Eroch Side 27, 286 Logan Water 236 Lord Breadalbine’s March 145 Lord Gregory 227 Lord Ronald, my son 181 Lothian lassie, The 293 Louis, what reck 108 Lovely lass of Inverness, The 306 Lull me beyond thee 14 Lumps of puddings 273 McGrigor of Roro’s lament 81 McLauchlin’s Scots-measure 41

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Index of tunes McPherson’s Farewell 9, 70 Maid’s complaint, The 183 Major Graham 258, 269 Mally Stuart 342 Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet 95 Mary Queen of Scots lament 155 Mary’s dream 65 Mill, mill O, The 232 Miller’s wedding 312 Minnie’s ay glowerin o’er me 253 Miss Admiral Gordon’s Strathspey 96 Miss Muir 164 Maid’s complaint, The 183 Morag 56, 57, 297 Moudiewart, The 192 Muckin o’ Geordie’s byre, The 242 Musket salute, The 141 My ain kind dearie, O 220 My collier laddie 195 My jo, Janet 255 My lady’s gown 350 My love is lost to me 97 My love, she’s but a lassie yet 133 My Nanie, O 4 My Peggy’s face 61 My wife she dang me 347 My wife’s a wanton wee thing 129, 217 Niel Gow’s lament 140 Niel Gow’s lamentation for Abercairney 62 Nithsdale’s welcome hame 121 O, an ye were dead, Guidman 34, 309 O can ye labour lea 211 O dear minny 138 O ken ye what Meg 233 O’er the hills and far away 259 O’er the muir amang the heather 254 Old highland laddie, The 182 On the cold ground 272 Oonagh’s Waterfall 261 Open the door softly 229 Oran an aoig 163 Oran gaoil 250 Over the water to Charlie 46, 85 Parcel of rogues in a nation, A 204 Peggy Bawn 26 Peggy Ramsay 354 Phoebe 51 Ploughman, The 79

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Index of tunes Port Gordon 2 Posie, The 201 Prepare, my dear Brethren 15 Push about the jorum 278 Quaker’s wife, The 110, 235, 252 Rantin laddie, The 327 Rashes, The 328 Rattlin, roarin Willie 90 Reel o’ Stumpie, The 325 Rinn m’eudial mo mhealladh 188 Rob shear’d in hairst 109 Robie donna gorach 98 Rory Dall’s Port 166 Rosebud, A 87 Roslin Castle 43 Rothiemurche’s rant 268 Rowin’t in her apron, The 313 Ruffian’s rant 58, 59, 271 Saw ye my Eppie McNab 360 Saw ye my father? 251 Saw ye my Peggy? 366 Scots Queen 40, 88 Scroggam 348 Secret kiss, The 106 Seventh of November 99 She rose and let me in 44 Sic a wife as Willie had 202 Sir John Malcolm 158 Slave’s lament, The 207 Sodger laddie 32 Soldier’s joy 31 Souters o’ Selkirk, The 320 Sow’s tail to Geordie, The 270 Steer her up 344 Strathallan’s lament 53 Sutor’s dochter, The 256 Sweet’s the lass that loves me 194 Tailor’s march, The 66 Tak your auld cloak 167 Tam Glen 104 Tam Lin 310 There are few good fellows when Jamie’s awa 159, 274 There’s news, lasses 356 This is no my ain house 295 Three gude fellows ayont the glen 322 Thro’ the lang muir 165

1071

Index of tunes Tibbie Fowler 321 Tither morn, The 275 To daunton me 83 To the weaver’s gin ye go 68 Todlin Hame 248 Untitled in Scots Musical Museum 1 Up, and warn a’, Willie 86, 117 Up in the morning early 74 Wae is my heart 334 Wat ye wha I met yestreen 363 Waukrife minnie, A 151 We’ll gang nae mair a rovin’ 364 We’re a’ noddin 346 Weary pund o’ tow, The 189 Weaver and his shuttle, O, The 12 Wee Totum Fogg 345 Whare wad bonie Annie lie 30 What should a Lassie do wi an auld man? 176 What will I do 72 When she cam ben she bobbit 191, 262 Where Helen lies 77 Whistle, The 118 Whistle an’ I’ll come to ye, my lad 241 Whistle o’er the lave o’t 35, 103 White Cockade, The 146 Will ye lend me your loom, lass? 279, 291 Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut 115 Winter it is past, The 92 Wren’s nest, The 308 Ye Jacobites by name 200 Ye Mauchline belles 21 Ye’ll ay be welcome back again 76 Ye’re welcome Charlie Stewart 305, 331

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Index of Short Song Titles

Every song is included in the Index of First Lines, and the Index of Tunes supplies a further comprehensive finding-list. The selective index which follows lists as an additional aid certain short song titles, known through the printed word or tradition. These titles are not printed in the text.

A man’s a man for a’ that 276 Ae fond kiss 166 Auld lang syne 105 Ay waukin O 127 Birks of Aberfeldy, The 54 Bonny wee thing, The 186 Ca’ the ewes (a) 64 Ca’ the ewes (b) 260 Charlie he’s my darling 314 Comin thro’ the rye 312 Corn rigs 7 Deil’s awa wi’ th’Exciseman, The 215 Dumfries volunteers, The 278 For a’ that and a’ that 276 Gaird’ner wi’ his paidle, The 131 Green grow the rashes 23, 45 Highland Mary 218 I’m o’er young to marry yet 69 John Anderson my jo, John 142 John Barleycorn 14

Index of short song titles

Johnie Cope 137 Jolly Beggars, The 31 Killiecrankie 153 Lea-Rig, The 220 Love and Liberty 31 McPherson’s Farewell 70 Mary Morison 17 Mary Queen of Scots, Lament of 155 My Tocher’s The Jewel 174 Ploughman, The 79 Posie, The 201 Rantin dog the Daddie o’t, The 30 Rose, red, red, A 258 Rosebud, The 87 Scots, wha hae 246 Such a parcel of rogues in a nation 204 Tam Glen 104 Tam Lin 310 Tibbie Dunbar 125 To the weavers gin ye go 68 Tree of liberty, The 369 Up in the morning early 74 Wha’ll m-w me now 365 White Cockade, The 146 Willie Wastle 202

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