Volume IV, song 379, pages 392 and 293 - 'Kellyburnbraes' -...
Volume IV, song 379, pages 392 and 293 - 'Kellyburnbraes' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'There lived a carl in Kellyburnbraes, Hey, and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme, And he had a wife was the plague of his days And the thyme it is wither'd and rue is in prime.' A 'carl' is a man.
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
This comic song deals with the subject of an unhappy marriage. As is so often the case in traditional folk songs of this ilk, the woman is portrayed as 'the plague' of her husband's days. 'Kellyburnbraes', however, gives this common theme an unusual twist by featuring the devil as one of the characters. Throughout the song, possibly in recognition of superstition, the name of the devil is never written out in full. The 'humour' lies in the fact that the devil, unable to suffer this woman, swiftly returns her to her husband. In the last verse he states that 'I hae been a d-v-l the feck o' my life, / Hey and the rue grows bonie wi' thyme; / But ne'er was in h-ll till I met wi' a wife, / An' the thyme it is wither'd, and rue is in prime.'
Volume IV, song 379, pages 392 and 293 - 'Kellyburnbraes' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)