Volume II, song 181, page 189 - 'Johny Faa, or the Gypsie...
Volume II, song 181, page 189 - 'Johny Faa, or the Gypsie laddie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: ' The gypsies came to our Lord's yett, And vow but they sang sweetly; The sang sae sweet, and sae compleat, That down came the fair lady. When she came tripping down the stair, And a' her maids before her; As soon as they saw her weel fair'd face, They coost the glamer o'er her.' 'Yett' is the word for the outer gate of a keep door which is made of iron bars.
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.
Burns, in his personal commentaries on the songs, wrote, 'the people in Ayrshire begin this song:- 'The gypsies cam to my Lord Cassili's yet'. They have a great many more stanzas in this song than I ever yet saw in any printed copy'. According to Burns, the castle at Maybole referred to was still standing and that was where the Lord locked up his 'uncontrollable' wife. The lyrics to this tune also go by the title, 'Waes me for Prince Charlie' and the melody is thought to have been influenced by an older tune called, 'Ladie Cassilles Lilt'.
Volume II, song 181, page 189 - 'Johny Faa, or the Gypsie laddie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)