Volume IV, song 333, page 343 - 'It is na, Jean, thy bonie...
Volume IV, song 333, page 343 - 'It is na, Jean, thy bonie face' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'It is na, Jean, thy bonie face, Nor shape that I admire Althou' thy beauty and thy grace might weel awauk desire. Something in ilka part o' thee To praise, to love, I find, But dear as is thy form to me; Still dearer is thy mind.' 'Bonie' is Scots for handsome and 'well awauk' translates as well awake. 'Ilka' was a word in common usage at the time meaning every.
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 note at the top of this page, cites Burns as the author of this song. Burns in his notes on the song, left in Robert Riddell's copy of the 'Museum', tell a slightly different story, however: 'These were originally English verses:- I gave them their Scots dress'. This is one of the inherent problems with attributions in the 'Museum', they are not always accurate and when they are the extent of the authorship is not always qualified. The tune to this piece is entitled 'The Maids Complaint' and is by James Oswald. It was first published in 1740 and is dedicated to the Duke of Perth.
Volume IV, song 333, page 343 - 'It is na, Jean, thy bonie face' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)