Volume III, song 297, page 306 and 307 - 'Drap o' capie o' - 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 liv'd a wife in our gate-end, She lo'ed a drap o' capie O, And a' the gear that e'er she gat, She sipt it in her gabie O: Upon a frosty winter's night, The wife had got a drapie O, and she had pi'd her coats sae weel, She couldna find the patie O.' 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 first verse is about a woman who lived at the end of the street (the 'gate-end'), who loved drinking cap-ale ('capie'). In the song she gets drunk on a winter's night and wraps up in so many coats that she loses the pot she was drinking from (her 'pattie'). Glen (1900) says of this song, 'The tune is a lively one, but the words are not recommended to be sung in the drawing room.'!

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503493

Title

Volume III, song 297, page 306 and 307 - 'Drap o' capie o' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 263 x 211 mm