Volume IV, song 311, pages 320 and 321 - 'Let me in this ae...
Volume IV, song 311, pages 320 and 321 - 'Let me in this ae night' - 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 let me in this ae night, this ae, ae, ae night; O let me in this ae night, and I'll no come back again, jo. O lassie are ye sleepin' yet, Or are ye waukin, I wad wit, For loove has bound me hand and fitt, And I wad fain be in jo.' Chorus: 'O Let me in this ae night, this ae, ae, ae night, O let me in this ae night, and I'll no come back again jo.'
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.
It has been suggested by modern commentators that this song was written by Burns in 1795 although it has not been attributed to him in the 'Museum'. Johnson only added the attributions after Burns's death and as a result they were not always accurate. The song is now often set to the tune 'Lend me your Loom Lass', but at the time it was set to a tune called 'I would have my gowne made' or 'The newe Goune made' which was recorded as early as 1694.
Volume IV, song 311, pages 320 and 321 - 'Let me in this ae night' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)