Volume III, song 272, page 281 - 'The White Cockade' -...
Volume III, song 272, page 281 - 'The White Cockade' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'My love was born in Aberdeen, The boniest lad that e'er was seen, But now he makes our hearts fu' sad, He takes the field wi' his White Cockade. O he's a ranting roving lad, He is a brisk an' a bonny lad, Betide what may, I will be wed, And follow the boy wi' the White Cockade.'
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 White Cockade was worn by the supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It was supposedly adopted as an emblem after the Prince plucked a white bloom and fixed it to his bonnet. The emblem of the Hanoverians was the black cockade. After the Jacobite defeat at Culloden (1746), a flower was named in honour of the triumphant Duke of Cumberland who had led the Hanoverian forces. Called 'Sweet William', the flower was referred to by Jacobite sympathizers as 'Stinking Billy'. The tune accompanying this Jacobite song is also known under the title 'The Ranting Highlandman'.
Volume III, song 272, page 281 - 'The White Cockade' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)