Volume III, song 212, page 221 - 'The Taylor fell thro' the...
Volume III, song 212, page 221 - 'The Taylor fell thro' the bed, &c.' - 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 Taylor fell thro' the bed, thimble an' a', the Taylor fell thro' the bed thimble an' a'; The blankets were thin and the sheets they were sma', The Taylor fell thro' the bed, thimble an' a'.'
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.
Although Johnson made no mention of it here, Burns did claim to have written the second and fourth stanzas of this song. This is perfectly possible as Burns revised and expanded many of the songs included in the 'Museum'. It was also recorded by Burns, in his notes on the 'Museum', that 'this air is the march of the Corporation of Tailors'. Prior to its inclusion in the 'Museum', the accompanying melody was included in James Aird's 'Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs' (1782), under the title 'The Taylor's March'. Interestingly, an air entitled 'Beware the Ripples', which is identical to 'the Taylor's March', was included a number of years earlier in James Oswald's 'Caledonian Pocket Companion' (1759).
Volume III, song 212, page 221 - 'The Taylor fell thro' the bed, &c.' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)