Volume IV, song 352, page 364 - ' I hae a wife o' my ain' -...
Volume IV, song 352, page 364 - ' I hae a wife o' my ain' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'I hae a wife o' my ain, I'll partake wi' naebody I'll tak Cuckold frae nane; I'll gie Cuckold to naebody.'
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.
Glen (1990) says it is likely that this was either a simple country-dance tune to which 'some silly words were added', or was just not a song with a long history. However, the song is included in James Oswald's book, 'The Caledonian Pocket Companion' (1740), under the slightly different title, 'I've got a wife of my ain'. As Glen points out, though, the colloquial nature of the song title(s) shows that the song is indisputably of Scottish origin.
Volume IV, song 352, page 364 - ' I hae a wife o' my ain' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)