Volume V, song 457, page 470 - 'The Reel o' Stumpie' -...
Volume V, song 457, page 470 - 'The Reel o' Stumpie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'Wap and rowe, wap and row wap and row the feetie o't, I thought I was a maiden fair, 'Till I heard the greetie o't. Verse 2: 'My daddie was a Fiddler fine, My minnie she made mantie O; And I mysel a thumpin quine, And danc'd the reel o' stumpie O.'
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.
The language in this piece may seem a little inaccessible at first but a rough translation would read: 'Wrap and roll, wrap and roll, / Wrap and roll the little feet of it, / I thought I was a maiden fair, / Till I heard the crying of it! / My daddy was a fiddler fine, / My mother she made ladies capes, O, / And I myself an energetic young girl, / And danced the Reel of Stumpie, O.' This tune, although commonly published in song collections of the period, was without lyrics until Burns devised the set seen here.
Volume V, song 457, page 470 - 'The Reel o' Stumpie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)