Volume II, song 151, page 158 - 'Ah! The poor Shepherd's...
Volume II, song 151, page 158 - 'Ah! The poor Shepherd's mournful fate' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1 (to the tune of 'Gallashiels'): 'Ah! the poor shepherd's mournful fate, When doom'd to love, and doom'd to languish. To bear the scornful fair one's hate, Non dare disclose his anguish! yet eager looks, and dying sighs, My secret soul discover; While rapture trembling through mine eyes, Reveals how much I love her: The tender glance, the red'ning cheek, O'erspread with rising blushes, A thousand various ways they speak A thousand various wishes.'
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.
In his notes on the 'Museum', Burns commented that 'the old title 'Sour plums o' Gallashiels' probably saw the beginning of a song to this air, which is now lost'. Interestingly, Glen (1900) notes that this particular tune was included in William Thomson's 'Orpheus Caledonius' (1725) under the title 'Sow'r Plumbs of Gallow Sheils'. It also appeared in many subsequent Scottish song collections.
Volume II, song 151, page 158 - 'Ah! The poor Shepherd's mournful fate' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)