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I'll. LOVE-SONGS : HUMOROUS 409 |
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compared with Greenend Park, in Malcolm McDonald's Reels, second coll., 1789,10.
No. 169. The taylor fell thro' the bed. Scots- Musical Museum, 1790, No. 212, entitled The taylor fell thro' the bed, &c. The air is the March of the Corporation of Tailors. ' The second and fourth stanzas are mine ' {Interleaved Museum); ' Mr. Burns's old words,' in Law's MS. List. The tune is in Atkinson's MS., 1694, entitled Beware of the Kipells; in the Caledonian Pocket Companion, xi. 28; and as The Taylors March in Aird's Airs, 1782, i. No. 173. A song with substantially the above title is in the Merry Muses; it is named I rede you beware 0' the ripples, to the tune The taylor's faun thro' the bed, the second stanza being:—
'I rede you beware o' the ripples, young man,
I rede you beware o' the ripples, young- man, Tho' music be pleasure, tak music in measure
Or ye may want win' i' your whistle, young man.'
See the tune No. 172, which is the same as this, differently arranged. The more modern I^ogie o' Buchan is nothing but this seventeenth century melody, which is also allied to I love my love in-secret, No. no.
No. 170. O, merry hae I been teethin a heckle. Scots Musical Museum, 1790, No. 270. Tune, Lord Breadalbine's March. 'Mr. B.'s old words' (Law's MS. List) in Burns's handwriting. Stenhouse had the MS. of the song through his hands. There is no authority for assuming that it is a variant of the tinker's song in The Jolly Beggars, although it looks it.
The Celtic tune of Burns's choice has no sort of affinity with The bob 0' Dumblane. Mr. Henley has followed Scott-Douglas in assuming that it is the. same air. The bob 0' Dumblane is the tune of Song No. 204, and can be compared with Lord Breadalbine's March, or Boddich na'mbrigs, which is in Dow's Ancient Scots Music, c. 1^^6,32. It is an excellent specimen of Scots dance music of the eighteenth century. It lacks the intervals of a fourth and a seventh, and closes on the second of the scale.
Mo. 171. My lord a-hunting he is gane. Scots Musical Museum, 1803, No.XfV,' Written for this work by Robert Burns.' This is a side view of one of the fashionable amusements of the eighteenth century. ' The kith and kin of Cassilis' blude' recalls the ancient renown of the Kennedy family, which has been in the Scottish peerage since 1510. Cassilis House, near Ayr, was the scene of the not unwilling abduction of the Countess, and her subsequent incarceration for life in the tower with the heads of Faa and his gypsy gang emblazoned in stone on the turrets. The ballad of Johnny Faa or The Gypsy Laddie is supposed to have its origin from this traditional story.
According to Stenhouse, the tune is the composition of James Greig, a teacher of dancing in Ayrshire, who had a taste for painting, mechanics, and natural history. My lady's gown was originally published in the Museum. It is a remarkably good specimen of the untutored music of Scotland without regard to any of the scholastic rules of the art. Another specimen of Greig's tunes is in Stewart's Reels, 1762, 44, and in Campbell's Reels, 1778, n, entitled Greig's pipes.
Ifo. 172. The heather was blooming. Cromek's Reliques, 1808, 450; entitled Hunting Song, for the tune I rede ye beware 0' the ripells, young man. It is one of the Crochallan Club Songs in the Merry Muses, or rather an amended version of a song then current, but now not available. Mrs. McLehose begged the author not to print it, and he acted on the advice, but Cromek, though very fastidious about The Jolly Beggars, inserted it in the Reliques of Burns. For the tune, see Note i6p. |
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