Volume V, song 429, page 441 - 'As Sylvia in a forest lay'...
Volume V, song 429, page 441 - 'As Sylvia in a forest lay' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: As Sylvia in a forest lay, To vent her woe alone; Her swain Sylvander came that way, And heard her dying moan. Ah! is my love, she said, to you So worthless and so vain? Why is your wonted fond ness now Converted to disdain?'
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.
According to John Glen, in 'Early Scottish Melodies' (1900), the accompanying tune was composed by James Oswald and is known under the title 'The Maid's Complaint'. It was included by Oswald in his 'Curious Collection of Scots Tunes', which was dedicated to the Duke of Perth (1740), and also in his 'Caledonian Pocket Companion' (1759). Glen further informs that for the purposes of the 'Museum', Johnson's musical arranger and editor, Stephen Clarke, slightly altered the tune to render it 'more vocal'.
Volume V, song 429, page 441 - 'As Sylvia in a forest lay' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)