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I. LOVE-SONGS : PERSONAL 375 |
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Museum a song of Mrs. McLehose was inserted, for which Bnrns wrote a stanza to complete the verses. See Song No. 7<5.
The tune Scots Queen is in Oswald's Companion, c, 1759, xii. 1, and the Scots Musical Museum, 1788, No. 190.
The primary cause of Burns's arrangements for emigrating in 1786 arose out of the amour with Jean Armour, to which the beautiful poem The Lament refers. The state of mind of the poet, at this time bordering on madness, is described in his Autobiography.
Ho. 67. Again rejoicing Nature sees. Edinburgh edition, 1787, 327. Tune, Jockey's gray breeks, with a footnote on the chorus: 'This chorus is part " of a song composed by a gentleman in Edinburgh, a particular friend of the author's.' According to Scott-Douglas, the chorus was written by the poet himself, and to conceal the reference to Jean Armour he changed the name to 'Menie.' At this time, the beginning of 1787, he was in Edinburgh correcting the proofs of the first Edinburgh edition.
The tune, a variation of The weaver and his shuttle, a title not in any Scottish collection, is taken from the Caledonian Pocket Companion, c. 1745, ii.^.2. The music is also in Oswald's Curious Scots Tunes, 1742, ii. 6, Aird's Airs, 1782, i. No./p, and in the Peith Musical Miscellany, 1786. 2j6. The old song for the tune has never been printed, and it is "doubtful whether more exists than the following fragment in Herd's MS.:—
' I'll hae Johnny's gray breeks Hf ^MlJ.
For a' the ill he's done me yet And I'll hae Johnny's gray breeks
For a' the ill he's done me yet. He's done me ill and against my will,
And a' the country kens o' that! Yet I'll hae Johnny's gray breeks
For a' the ill he's done me yet.'
lo. 68. Tho' women's minds like winter winds. Scots Musical Museum, 1790, No. 2510, signed 'X,' and with the tune For d that. 'This song is mine, all except the chorus' (Heliijues, 2S2). In a footnote Cromek states that it is part of the bard's song in The Jolly Beggars. Doubtless; but it would be more proper to say that the song was rewritten for publication in the Museum, and for one of the favourite melodies of Burns. In the Law MS. it is marked ' Mr. B.'s old words.' The third stanza was originally printed in the Pickering edition of Burns. For the tune, see Nos. 275 and jop.
No. 69. Of a' the airts the wind can blaw. Scots Musical Museum, 1790, No. 2};, signed ' R,' entitled I love my Jean, Tune, Miss Admiral Cordon's Strathspey. ' Mr. Burns sent the words' (Law's MS. List). The MS. is in the British Museum. This and the following five songs are the honeymoon series, written in the last seven or eight months of 1788, and referring to his wife or his matrimonial life. Of a' the airts is justly one of the best-known and most popular songs of Scotland. ' The air is by Marshall; the song I composed out of compliment to Mrs. Burns. N.B. It was during the honeymoon ' {Reliques, 1808,57;). I' was written at Ellisland in June; his wife was then staying at Mossgiel with his mother and sisters. The song is very rarely printed correctly, and in many copies are added two spurious double stanzas, the work of John Hamilton, a music publisher. Allan Cunningham was responsible for leading the public astray, by asserting that they were in Burns's MS. In Thomson's Select Melodies, 1823, v. No. 10, a new set of sixteen lines are marked, ' Added by Mr. Richardson for this work.'
The tune is the composition of William Marshall, bntler to the Duke —»-• of Gordon. Stenhouse assumed that Marshall borrowed part of the air from The lowlands of Holland, but Mr. John Glen of Edinburgh has proved the |
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