Volume IV, song 342, page 352 - 'Roy's Wife of Alldivaloch'...
Volume IV, song 342, page 352 - 'Roy's Wife of Alldivaloch' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'Roy's wife of Alldivaloch Roy's wife of Alldivaloch Wat ye how she cheated me as I came o'er the braes of Balloch. She vow'd she swore she wad be mine She said that she loe'd me best of ony but oh the fickle faithless quean She's taen the Carl and left her Johnie.'
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 first occurrence of this melody under this title was in 1759 in Bremner's 'Scots Reels or Country Dances'. The melody, however, is older and can be found in the MacFarlane Manuscript of 1740 entitled 'Lady Frances Wemys's Reel'. Much later, during the 1780s, the song can also be found with the Gaelic title, 'Coig na Scalan'. This song eventually became popular and underwent changes in the north of England during the early 1800s.
Volume IV, song 342, page 352 - 'Roy's Wife of Alldivaloch' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)