Complete Songs Of Robert Burns - online book

360+ songs with lyrics, sheet music, historical notes & glossary.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. WORKS OF BURNS.
[Burns was born January 25, 1759 ; he wrote his first song in the autumn of 1773 or 1774; published the first edition of his Works in 1786, and the last in 1794. His connexion with Johnson's Scots Musical Museum began in the spring or summer of 1787, and with Thomson's Scotish Airs in September, 1792, and he continued to contribute to both collections until his death on July a I, 1796. The Bibliography of Burns in the ' Memorial Catalogue of the Burns Exhibition, 1896. Glasgow: Hodge, 1898,' describes 696 editions of the Works of Burns published in the United Kingdom.]
Hastie MSS., in the British Museum (No. 22,307), include 162 songs, mostly in the handwriting of Burns, which he contributed to the Scots Musical Museum.                     
Dalhousie MS., in Brechin Castle, consists of Letters to George Thomson, and songs intended for publication in Scotish Airs..
Gray's MS. Lists, belonging to George Gray, Esq., of the County Buildings, Glasgow, are a number of detached sheets containing the titles of songs pro­posed for insertion in the second and subsequent volumes of the Scots Musical Museum. The lists are partly in the handwriting of Burns and partly in that of James Johnson.
Law's MS. List, lately in the possession of William Law, Littleborongh, is a holograph of Burns, entitled ' List of Songs for 3rd Volume of the Scots Musical Museum? which he sent to Johnson in a letter dated April 24, 1789. This MS., now referred to for the first time, definitely settles the authorship of many songs, some of which in the following pages are printed for the first time as the work of Burns. See facsimile following.
Glenriddell MSS., in the Athenaeum Library, Liverpool, consist of Poems and Letters of Burns, presented to Robert Riddell of Glenriddell.
Interleaved Museum is a copy of the first four volumes of the Scots Musical Museum which belonged to Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, and in which Burns wrote numerous Notes (or Strictures as be called them) on Songs, many of them his own. R. H. Cromek was permitted to examine the volumes by the owner, Eliza Bayley, and pages 187 to 306 of his Reliques of Robert Burns, 1808, contain a transcript of the Notes, which are the most interesting part of the work. Every editor of Burns has relied Implicitly on the accuracy of Cromek. Upon the recent discovery of the Interleaved Museum after a sequestration of nearly a century, I have been permitted to collate it with the Reliques with the following result: Out of 173 Notes printed by Cromek only 127 are verbatim copies; eighteen are garbled or Imperfect, of which four differ entirely from the MS., and another four are written partly by Burns and partly by Riddell; fourteen are written entirely by Riddell or other than Burns; lastly, fourteen are not in the MS. at all, and the leaves of four of these have been cut out and are now missing. On the other hand seven short