Volume III, song 247, page 256 - 'Auld Robin Gray' -...
Volume III, song 247, page 256 - 'Auld Robin Gray' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'When the sheep are in the fauld and the ky at hame, And a' the warld to sleep are gane, The waes of my heart fa' in show'rs frae my ee When my gudeman lyes found by me.' 'Ky' is the Scots word for cattle and 'ee' is used for eyes.
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 was devoted to the 'Museum' and after the publication of the first volume, set the criteria of only including songs of Scots origin. He also kept personal notes on the songs which he collected. These remain in the interleaves of Robert Riddell's copy of the 'Museum'. There is a short record about the history of this song, 'this air was formerly called 'The bridegroom greets when the sun gangs down'. Later into the 1850s an English clergyman claimed the melody for his own. This claim has, however, since been disproved.
Volume III, song 247, page 256 - 'Auld Robin Gray' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)