Volume I, song 011, page 12 - 'Saw ye nae my Peggy' and 'The Toast' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

There are two sets of lyrics given here, to the same air. Here is the first verse of the first set: 'Saw ye nae my Peggy, saw ye nae my Peggy, Saw ye nae my Peggy, coming o'er the Lee. Sure, a finer creature, ne'er was form'd by nature, so compleat each feature, so divine is she. O, how Peggy charms me! ev'ry look still warms me, ev'ry thought alarms me, lest she love not me. Peggy doth discover nought but charms all over; nature bids me love her; that's a Law to me.' 'Lee' in this context, means unploughed pasture or rough land. The second set of lyrics; 'The Toast', begin with, 'Come let's ha'e mare wine in, Bacchus hates repining'. 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. Burns, in his notes on the 'Museum', makes no mention of the first set of lyrics, but casts aspersions on 'The Toast'. He said, 'This charming song is much older, and indeed much superior, to (Allan) Ramsay's verses, 'The Toast' as he calls them. There is another set of words much older still, and which I take to be the original one, but although it has a great deal of merit it is not quite ladies' reading.'

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503208

Title

Volume I, song 011, page 12 - 'Saw ye nae my Peggy' and 'The Toast' - 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

- 130 x 211 mm