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viii. JACOBITE 469 |
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and Tense, under the ragged banners of Dissonance and Disarrangement, eternally rank against him in hostile array.' According to Stenhouse the song was written to commemorate the visit of Prince Charles Stuart to Castle Gordon, before his defeat at Culloden.
The tune Morag is a Celtic air justly admired by Burns. In 1794 he wrote to George Thomson, that this song was not worthy of the air. It is very little known and ought to be popular, if only on account of the melody. When sending a copy of the Museum containing the song to Rose of Kilravock and to the Duke's librarian, Burns spoke of the melody in enthusiastic terms. The tune is in Dow's Scots Music, c. 1776, 46. A bad copy is in Fraser's Highland Airs, No. 119. See No. 98.
No. 293. My heart is wae, and uneo wae. Chambers's Edition, 1852. Tune, Mary's Dream. A facsimile is in the Centenary Edition, 1897, iv. 9a. It is supposed to have been written immediately after the receipt of the news of the supposed marriage of Miss Walkinshaw with Prince Charles Stuart, who declared the legitimation of his daughter by a formal deed, registered in France in December, 1787. On his death the year following the putative Duchess of Albany was assumed to be his sole heir. The verses are more fhan-a sentimental effusion of Jacobitism. Tbe tune Mary's Dream is the composition of John Lowe, a minor poet, and the author of the song Maty, weep no more for me. Lowe, the son of a gardener to the Earl of Ke12more, was born in Galloway in the year 1750. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a weaver; he educated himself, and entered the University of Edinburgh as a student of Divinity. He is said to have written a tragedy, was a skilful musician, and a player on the violin. He died in America in 1798. Kirkpatrick Sharpe severely censured Allan Cunningham for mutilating Lowe's song. All the mischief done by ' Honest Allan ' as a literary forger will never be discovered.
The tune Mary's Dream is from the Perth Musical Miscellany, 1786, 96, where it is printed with Lowe's verses. The music is also in the Museum,
1787, No. jy; Calliope, 1788, 16; and Aird's Airs, 1788, I'll. No. 480.
No. 294. Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er. Scots Musical Museum,
1788, ii. No. 187. The MS. is in the British Museum. This is a version which, according to Stenhouse, was revised and corrected by Burns. The refrain slightly varied belongs to the Jacobite events of 1745. The loyalist collections of the period contain several songs of the kind, but no model Of this one is known. For note on the tune, see No. 230.
No. 295. O, I am oome to the low oountrie. Scots Musical Museum, 1796, No. 498, entitled The Highland widow's lament. The MS. is in the British Museum. This, or the germ of it is supposed to have been obtained from the Highlands. The sentiment of the verses is noble, the loss of flocks and herds is not considered of any consequence compared with the defence of the rightful heir to the throne. On a different song, Oh ono chrio, i.e. Lament for the chief in the Museum, 1787, No. 89, Burns wrote the following note: 'Dr. Blacklock informed me that this song was composed on the infamous massacre of Glencoe' {Interleaved Museum). Burns contributed the melody of his song to the Museum where it was first printed. Schumann was Impressed with the sImple phrases and took them as the theme of an original composition for the verses of Burns. It is in his Liederkreis, Op. 25.
No. 296. It was a' for our rlghtfu' king. Scots Musical Museum, 1796, No. 49J. These stirring and romantic verses were from the hand of Burns, and Stenhouse first connected his name with them. Cunningham and afterwards Hogg and Motherwell inserted them in the Works of Burns, and finally Scott-Douglas, in the Edinburgh Edition, 1877, I'll. 192, produced a facsimile of the Burns MS. A ballad which Motherwell printed in 1834 is the foundation of Burns's verses. But the original is a street ballad, Mally Stuart, |
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