Volume VI, song 525, page 542 - 'Willy's rare, and Willy's fair' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'Willy's rare, and Willy's fair, And Willy's wondr'ous bonnie; And Willy heght to marry me gin e'er he marry'd ony oh gin e'er he marry'd ony.' The word 'heght' means to promise or offer. 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. According to Stenhouse (1853), this fragment of an ancient song, together with its air, was copied from William Thomson's 'Orpheus Caldonius' (1725). As John Glen (1900) points out, however, it did not in fact appear until the second edition was published, in 1733. Though Glen concedes that the lyrics contained in 'Orpheus Caldonius' may well be the original, he writes that a 'more simple and beautiful version' of the air can be found under the song title, 'Sweet Willie', published in the Blaikie and Leyden manuscripts of 1692.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503719

Title

Volume VI, song 525, page 542 - 'Willy's rare, and Willy's fair' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 129 x 211 mm