Volume IV, song 365, pages 376 and 377 - 'Country Lassie' -...
Volume IV, song 365, pages 376 and 377 - 'Country Lassie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'In simmer when the hay was mawn, And corn wav'd green in ilka field, While claver blooms white o'er the lea, And roses blaw in ilka bield; Blythe Bessie in the milking shiel, Says I'll be wed come o't what will; Out spak a dame in wrinkled eild, O' gude advisement comes nae ill.'
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.
'Country Lassie' is a different song entirely to 'A Country Lass', which is song number 346 in Volume IV of 'The Scots Musical Museum'. There appears to be some doubt surrounding the origins of both the lyrics and the melody of 'Country Lassie', with some comparisons being made to an earlier melody written by the English composer, Henry Carey. Though conceding that a couple of the music's bars are similar, John Glen (1900) believes that the tune in 'The Scots Musical Museum' is essentially Scottish in character and so unlikely to be copied. Although the song lyrics are supposedly written - or perhaps re-written - by Burns, his name was not put to the song until 1792.
Volume IV, song 365, pages 376 and 377 - 'Country Lassie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)