Volume IV, song 353, pages 364 and 365, - 'When she cam ben...
Volume IV, song 353, pages 364 and 365, - 'When she cam ben she bobbed' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'O when she cam ben she bobbed fu' law, O when she cam ben she bobbed fu' law, And when she cam ben she kiss'd Cockpen, And fyne deny'd she did it at 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.
Glen (1990) writes that this tune is probably one of the oldest Scottish airs, though no manuscript or print version appeared until 1692. This melody is better known as 'The Laird o' Cockpen', which is how it appeared in Allan Ramsay's book, 'Music for Ramsay's Scots Songs in the Tea-Table Miscellany' (1726). The title of the song in English is 'When she came through she curtseyed'. There is also an English version of the melody, dating back to 1709/10, under the song title 'Buckingham House'.
Volume IV, song 353, pages 364 and 365, - 'When she cam ben she bobbed' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)