by Robert Burns
Will Ye Go to the Indies, My Mary
Tune: Ewe Bughts Marion
First printed in Currie, 1800.
Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary,
And leave auld Scotia’s shore; old
Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary,
Across th’ Atlantic roar.
5 O sweet grows the lime and the orange
And the apple on the pine;
But a’ the charms o’ the Indies
Can never equal thine.
I hae sworn by the Heavens to my Mary, have
10 I hae sworn by the Heavens to be true,
And sae may the Heavens forget me, so
When I forget my vow!
O plight me your faith, my Mary,
And plight me your lily-white hand;
15 O plight me your faith, my Mary,
Before I leave Scotia’s strand.
We hae plighted our troth, my Mary, have
In mutual affection to join;
And curst be the cause that shall part us;
20 The hour and the moment o’ time. —
This is based on the old song Will Ye Go to the Ewe-Bughts, Marion (see the anti-war song of this title written in 1794 and attributed to Burns in our Anonymous & Pseudonymous Works section). It was sent to Thomson on 27th October, 1792 and based on an earlier lyric by Burns. This song forms part of the Highland Mary myth.
Answer to an Invitation
First printed by Stewart, 1802.
The King’s most humble servant, I Can scarcely spare a minute;
But I’ll be wi’ ye by and bye,
Or else the deil ‘s be in it.
This was the poet’s answer on being invited to the drinking contest outlined in The Whistle, written on a page torn from an Excise book. Mackay (1993) questions the authenticity of this rhyming scribble, written extempore, saying it has been ‘long suspect as Burns had not yet begun his Excise career’ (p. 370). Such a conclusion replicates the error made by Scott Douglas, who obviously misdates the poet’s start to his Excise career in September 1789. The contest at Friar’s Carse took place on 16th October, 1789, over a month after the poet commenced his Excise duties. The note was preserved at Craigdarroch. There is no evidence to doubt authenticity.
Highland Mary
Tune: Katherine Ogie
First printed in Thomson’s Select Collection, 1799.
Ye banks, and braes, and streams around hill slopes
The castle o’ Montgomery,
Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumlie! muddied
5 There Summer first unfald her robes, unfolded
And there the langest tarry: longest stay
For there I took the last Fareweel farewell
O’ my sweet Highland Mary.
How sweetly bloom’d the gay, green birk, birch
10 How rich the hawthorn’s blossom;
As underneath their fragrant shade,
I clasp’d her to my bosom!
The golden Hours, on angel wings
Flew o’er me and my Dearie;
15 For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.
Wi’ monie a vow, and lock’d embrace, many
Our parting was fu’ tender; so
And, pledging aft to meet again, often
20 We tore oursels asunder:
But Oh, fell Death’s untimely frost,
That nipt my Flower sae early!
Now green’s the sod, and cauld’s the clay, cold is
That wraps my Highland Mary!
25 O pale, pale now, those rosy lips
I aft hae kiss’d sae fondly! oft, so
And clos’d for ay, the sparkling glance, always
That dwalt on me sae kindly! dwelled, so
And mouldering now in silent dust,
30 That heart that lo’ed me dearly!
But still within my bosom’s core
Shall live my Highland Mary.
Burns wrote ‘The foregoing Song pleases myself; I think it is my happiest manner’ (Letter 518). Thomson, a meddler with Burns’s lyrics, wanted to change the words, but Burns stood his ground and refused. It is the song at the heart of the Mary (or Margaret) Campbell Highland Mary myth.
My Wife’s a Winsome Wee Thing
Tune: As title.
First printed in Currie, 1800.
She is a winsome wee thing,
She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a lo’esome wee thing, lovesome
This sweet wee wife o’ mine.
5 I never saw a fairer,
I never lo’ed a dearer; loved
And neist my heart I’ll wear her, next to
For fear my jewel tine. lost
She is a winsome wee thing,
10 She is a handsome wee thing,
She is a lo’esome wee thing,
This dear wee wife o’ mine.
The warld’s wrack, we share o’t, world’s suffering
The warstle and the care o’t; struggle
15 Wi’ her I’ll blythely bear it,
And think my lot divine.
This was written for Thomson’s Select Collection but the editor meddled with the lyrics and eventually printed a version in 1824 with some lines from Burns, but containing some twenty lines of his own. There are many occasions where Thomson picked up on self-effacing remarks by Burns on his own songs and decided to improve the bard’s lyrics. Burns told Thomson, ‘The following I made extempore … I might give you something more profound, yet it might not suit the light-horse gallop of the air so well as this random clink’ (l. 514).
Here’s a Health to Them That’s Awa
First printed in fragment by Cromek (1808) then in full in
The Scots Magazine, January 1818.
Here’s a health to them that’s awa, away
Here’s a health to them that’s awa;
And wha winna wish gude luck to our cause, who will not
May never gude luck be their fa’! lot
5 It ’s gude to be merry and wise,
It ’s gude to be honest and true,
It ’s gude to support Caledonia’s cause
And bide by the Buff and the Blue. Whig colours
Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa, away
10 Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa;
Here ’s a health to Charlie, the chief o’ the clan,1
Altho’ that his band be sma’. small
May Liberty meet wi’ success!
May Prudence protect her frae evil! from
15 May Tyrants and Tyranny tine i’ the mist, get lost in
And wander their way to the Devil!
Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa,
Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa;
Here ’s a health to Tammie, the Norland laddie,2
20 That lives at the lug o’ the Law! ear (is intimate with)
Here ’s freedom to him that wad read, would
Here ’s freedom to him that would write!
There’s nane ever fear’d that the Truth should be heard, none
But they whom the Truth wad indite.
25 Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa,
An’ here ’s to them that ’s awa!
Here ’s to Maitland and Wycombe! Let wha does na like ’em3 who, not
Be built in a hole in the wa’! wall
Here ’s timmer that ’s red at the heart, timber
30 Here ’s fruit that is sound at the core;
And may he that wad turn the buff and blue coat would
Be turn’d to the back o’ the door!4
Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa,
Here ’s a health to them that ’s awa;
35 Here ’s Chieftain M’Leod, a chieftain worth gowd,5 gold
Tho’ bred amang mountains o’ snaw! among, snow
Here ’s friends on baith sides o’ the Forth, both
And
friends on baith sides o’ the Tweed, both
And wha wad betray old Albion’s right, who would England’s
40 May they never eat of her bread!
Kinsley suggest that the Egerton MS of this song is apparently a short early version of the song published in The Edinburgh Gazetteer in December 1792. This may be the case, but there is no trace of the song in the extant issues in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, which contains almost the full run. (A handful of issues exist in Edinburgh and London.) Part of a page is missing from an issue of late December 1792 and the poetry column on page 4 is ripped out of the issue, 15th January, 1793. If the song was in that radical paper, it would certainly have heightened Burns’s near hysterical denial to Graham of Fintry (Letter 530) of sending anything treasonable to the Edinburgh paper. In the growing mood of repression, the song is probably Burns’s most overt and unambiguous commitment to the Whig ‘Buff and Blue’ cause (l. 8). In part Burns is making a joke of Charles James Fox (l. 11) as clan chief of the intensely loyal Scottish Foxites but he is also using the energy of a Jacobite song to boost the prospects of their one-time enemies.
Tammie, the Norland Laddie (l. 19) is Thomas Erskine (1750– 1823), the almost equally celebrated brother of Henry Erskine (Dean of the Faculty of Advocates). An intimate of Fox and Sheridan he defended Thomas Paine in 1792 (in Paine’s absence) and later other London radicals tried for treason. Not only a political pamphleteer, he spearheaded the association for Freedom of the Press. James Maitland (1759–1839), eighth Earl of Lauderdale, was known personally by Burns. Like Thomas Muir he was a student 770 the canongate burns and friend of Glasgow’s great Enlightenment radical, Profesor John Millar. He had to defend himself and his friends in the House of Lords in 1792 from the ‘gross calumnies’ levelled by royal proclamation against them and on one occasion provocatively turned up dressed as a Republican Sans Culotte. He was a sympathiser with the French revolution and went to France with Dr Moore at the same time Lord Daer was there. John Henry Petty Fitzmaurice (1765–1809), Earl of Wycombe was also involved in the protests in the House of Lords in 1792. Chieftain McLeod is Colonel Norman McLeod of McLeod (1754–1801). He was extremely outspoken in Parliament and many of his speeches and political letters were recorded in The Edinburgh Gazetteer, to the extent that some letters of late 1792 were even re-printed in January 1793 due to public demand. Here is an extract of a letter to Charles Grey, dated Edinburgh, 30th November, 1792 which captures the heightened political consciousness of Scotland at that juncture:
Dear Sir
I sit down to perform my promise of keeping you apprised of the situation of Scotland… The Proclamation [against so-called ‘wicked and seditious writings’] acted like an Electric shock! it set people of all ranks a-reading and as everybody in this Country can read, the people are already astonishingly informed. Farmers, ploughmen, peasants, manufacturers, artificers, shopkeepers, sailors, merchants are all employed in studying and reasoning with great deliberation on the nature of Society and Government… The present Ministry is extremely odious from three causes: the Proclamation; the resistance to the Borough reform; and the firing on the Mob on the King’s Birthday here, for burning Dundas in effigy. The pension of £100 a year given immediately to Pringle the Sheriff who ordered the troops to fire and creating the Provost a Baronet, have greatly aggravated the insult to the people. The conduct of Government seems to be a mixture of timidity and cunning; they are really afraid of insurrections on the one hand and on the other they court and provoke them. On the slightest occasion the troops are put in motion. On the 4th June, before there was the slightest appearance of riot, the dragoons paraded thro’ all the principal streets of Edinbr. with drawn swords, the Regiment in the Castle were furnished with ball cartridges, a signal by cannons and flags from the Castle was concerted to make the men of war in Leith roads land their Marines, and another for a regiment of Dragoons to gallop into the city: and all this to rescue the Secretary’s effigy which had been threatened in anonymous letters. A few days ago some boys assembled at Dundee to plant the tree of liberty: one of the Magistrates immediately announced an insurrection and it was industriously given out here that the inhabitants of that town had risen, had seized the Custom House amd Excise officers and refused to pay taxes … In consequence however of this [false] alarm the 42nd Reg [iment] is ordered southward from Fort George and are to be quartered in Perth and Dundee. It is also said that the 57th Reg [iment] is to be sent down from England and to be quartered in the town and suburbs, a thing unknown since 1745…. Dundas’s person was certainly in some degree of danger for their hatred and contempt of him is beyond all bounds … The people are everywhere associating, reading, deliberating and corresponding … the result of this steady calmness of consultation may be great and aweful. I have attended two of their meetings, one in Glasgow, the other here; both composed of delegates from various associations…. I addressed both meetings, strongly inculcating the excellence of our Constitution if restored to its purity by more equal representation and short Parliaments … I was … the first man of rank or fortune who had appeared among them …
It is readily apparent why Burns listed McLeod for praise among this pantheon of contemporary radicals. McLeod was, as Burns wrote in The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer standing forth to tell ‘The honest, open, naked truth’ and despite his guinea stamp of rank, he is ‘a chieftain worth gowd’ (gold). The ‘friends’ on both sides of the Forth and Tweed are radicals in the various Friends of the People associations.
1 Charles James Fox, leader of the Whig Opposition.
2 Thomas Erskine, brother of Henry (Dean of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland), was the great radical lawyer of this era. He defended Thomas Paine and spearheaded the association for Freedom of the Press while writing a few radical pamphlets of his own.
3 James Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale. Burns knew him personally. John Petty, Earl Wycombe was another aristocratic Whig.
4 This is probably a slight on Edmund Burke, who changed parties from the Whigs to the Tories.
5 Colonel Norman McLeod, Whig M. Mp. At this time McLeod made a lot of noise about how Scotland should have the right to raise its own army. His criticism of Henry Dundas and Pitt was vitriolic.
The Lea-Rig
Tune: My ain kind dearie, O.
First printed in Currie, 1800.
When o’er the hill the eastern star
Tells bughtin-time is near, my jo, ewe-milking, dear
And owsen frae the furrow’d field oxen from, ploughed
Return sae dowf and weary, O: weak/listless
5 Down by the burn where scented birks birches
Wi’ dew are hangin clear, my jo,
I’ll meet thee on the lea-rig, sheltered ridge
My ain kind Dearie, O. own
At midnight hour, in mirkest glen, darkest
10 I’d rove, and ne’er be eerie O, afraid
If thro’ that glen I gaed to thee, go
My ain kind Dearie, O: own
Altho’ the night were ne’er sae wild, so
And I were ne’er sae weary O, so
15 I’ll meet thee on the lea-rig,
My ain kind Dearie, O. own
The hunter lo’es the morning sun, loves
To rouse the mountain deer, my jo, dear/darling
At noon the fisher takes the glen,
20 Adown the burn to steer, my jo; to wander
Gie me the hour o’ gloamin grey, give, almost nightfall
It maks my heart sae cheery O, so
To meet thee on the lea-rig
My ain kind Dearie O. own
Although based on an old song, this lyric has been considerably improved by Burns. Robert Fergusson’s earlier version, The Lee Rig, is also commendable but lacks the darker erotic edge of the Burns poem.
Duncan Gray –
original
First printed in Thomson’s Select Collection, 1798.
Duncan Gray cam here to woo, find romance
&
nbsp; Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,
On blythe Yule-night when we were fu’, Christmas, drunk
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
5 Maggie coost her head fu’ high, tossed, full
Look’d asklent and unco skeigh, askance, very disdainful
Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh, made, at a distance
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
Duncan fleech’d, and Duncan pray’d; flattered
10 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,
Meg was deaf as Ailsa craig a stone (Island off Girvan)
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
Duncan sigh’d baith out and in, both
Grat his een baith bleer’t an’ blin’, cried, eyes both, bleary
15 Spak o’ lowpin o’er a linn; spoke, jumping, waterfall
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
Time and Chance are but a tide,
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
Slighted love is sair to bide, sore, tolerate
20 Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
Shall I, like a fool, quoth he,
For a haughty hizzie die? stern hussy
She may gae to — France for me! — go
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
25 How it comes, let Doctors tell,
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t,
Meg grew sick as he grew hale, healthy
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t.
Something in her bosom wrings,
30 — For relief a sigh she brings;
And O her een they spak sic things! eyes, spoke such
Ha, ha, the wooing o’t!