Volume IV, song 361, page 372 - 'My Collier Laddie' -...
Volume IV, song 361, page 372 - 'My Collier 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: 'Whare live ye my bonie lass, And tell me what they ca' ye? My name, she says is Mistress Jean, And I follow the Collier laddie.'
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.
Stenhouse (1853) says that the lyrics and melody of this song 'were transmitted by Burns to Johnson in the poet's own handwriting'. Glen (1900) writes that, after much searching, he cannot find any trace of the words or melody for this song, prior to its publication in 'The Scots Musical Museum'. In an identical manner to Glen, Stenhouse also believes that the song did not appear in any song collection before the publication of 'The Scots Musical Museum'.
Volume IV, song 361, page 372 - 'My Collier Laddie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)