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388 HISTORICAL NOTES |
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The oldest form of the well-known tune Logie o' Buchan is derived from I love my love in secret, which is in Guthrie's MS'., according to Dauney; in Play ford's Original Scotch Tunes, 1700; in Sinkler's MS., Glasgow, 1710; in McGibbon's Scots Tunes, 1742, 4; in Caledonian Pocket Companion, c. 1745, ii.26; and other collections.
No. 111. There's nought but care on ev*ry han'. Qf this song all but the last stanza is in the Commonplace Book, nnder the date Aug., 1178^ In its complete form it was published in the Edinburgh edition, 178.7., J2j, and with the tune in the Scots Musical Museum, 1787, Tmo. 77, as the earliest song —'of Burns printed with music. In a passage in the Commonplace Book, p. 20, Barns divides young men into Jwo classes—the grave and, the merry; and in a_ later reference to the subject, instead of stating to which class he himself belongs, he quotes the fragment of Green grow the rashes, so that the reader may determine the matter himself. The song is sa.lr.ee_and spontaneous in its rhythm and cadence, as to require no music to interpret it. It is as popular now as when first given to the public; not even a century.has diminished its lustre. The earlier rustic song which Burns knew, and had in his mind when he wrote his own poem, cannot be printed entire. Jt is a humorous satire on manners, one stanza running thus:—
' We *re a' dry wi' drinkin o't, We're a' dry wi' drinkin o't, The minister kissed the fiddler's wife, And could na preach for thinkin o't.'
Two highly-flavoured songs for the tune are in the Merry Musts. In 1794 Thomson proposed to set the verses to the tune Cauld Kail, but Burns objected, saying that as the old song was current in Scotland under the old title, and to the merry old tune of that name, the introduction of his verses with a new _tune wouldjmjrjts celebrity. Cou thou me the raschyes green is named in the Complaynt of Scotland, c. 1549. A tune with this title, which is in a MS. in the British Museum, is quite a different melody from that in the text; but s the germ of the present air is in Stralach's MS., 1627, entitled A dance; Green grow the rashes. It was known later as I kist her while she ilushir evidently from the first line or refrain of forgotten_verses. In Bremner's Reels, 1759,64, it is named The Grant's Ranfc its earliest appearance in print is in Oswald's Curious Collection Scots Tunes, JJ^p^jj. 42. It is in Oswald's Companion,^ 1743, i. 18; Stewart's J?eelsrij6i, ij, and many other tune-books of the end of the eighteenth century.
Wo. 112. O, whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock ? Scots Musical Museum, 1787, No. 09, entitled Bonie Dundee, with the tune of the same name. Cromek's Scotish Songs, 1810, ii. 202 ; Lawrie's Scottish Songs, 179') ii. or. Early in 1787, the Earl of Buchan sent a complimentary letter to Bnrns, who carried it in his pocket for some lime, and ultimately used the dingy blank leaf at one of the meetings of the Crochallan Club to pencil the opening lines of Bonie Dundee, which his friend Robert Cleghorn had just sung. A short time afterwards he sent to the latter the verses in the text. Stenhouse says that the first four lines are old; while, according to Scott-Douglas, the first eight lines are in the original song. Neither statement is correct; for only the first two lines of the song are in the original broadside (in the Pepys and other collections), reprinted in Wit and Mirth, London, 1703, as follows:—
' Where gott'st thou the Haver-meal bonack 1
Blind Booby, can'st thou not see; I'se got it out of the Scotch-man's wallet,
As he lig lousing him under a tree. |
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