Volume II, song 152, page 159 - 'My love has forsaken me' -...
Volume II, song 152, page 159 - 'My love has forsaken me' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'My love has forsaken me, Know ye for why! Because he has flocks and herds, And none have I.' Chorus: 'Whether I get him, whether I get him, Whether I get him or no, I care not three fardins Whether I get him or no.' 'Fardin' or 'faurdin' is the Scots dialect spelling of farthing.
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.
William Stenhouse, editor of the 'Museum' (1853) following Johnson's death, believed that 'the words and music of this song were furnished by Dr Blacklock for Johnson's Museum, about the close of 1787. Allan Masterton copied both for the doctor'. Many of Stenhouse's conjectures on the 'Museum' have since been largely discredited. The only comment Glen (1900) has to offer on this song and tune are that 'the melody in the first part is ill suited to the words'.
Volume II, song 152, page 159 - 'My love has forsaken me' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)