Volume V, song 452, page 464 - 'I'll never love thee more'...
Volume V, song 452, page 464 - 'I'll never love thee more' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'My dear and only love I pray, This little world of thee, Be govern'd by no other sway, But purest monarchy: For if confusion have a part, Which virtuous souls abhor, I'll call a synod in my heart, And never love thee more.'
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.
The lyrics to this song were written by James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose (1612-1650). James came into his earldom unexpectedly at the young age of 14. He fell in love with Magdalene, the daughter of his next-door neighbour, Lord Carnegie of Kinnaird Castle. They married in 1629, when James was just 17. He went on to be both the famous Covenanting leader and then King's Lieutenant in Scotland for Charles I. He was eventually captured by Cromwell's forces in 1650 and hanged, drawn and quartered in Edinburgh. This poem was thought to have been written around about 1643, just as James was transferring his covenanting allegiance back to the Crown.
Volume V, song 452, page 464 - 'I'll never love thee more' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)