Volume VI, song 590, page 610 - 'Hard is the fate of him who loves' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'Hard is the fate of him who loves, Yet dares not tell his trembling pain, But to the sympathetic groves, But to the lonely list'ning plain. Oh, when she blesses next your shade, Oh, when her footsteps next are seen, In flow'ry tracts along the mead, In fresher mazes o'er the green.' 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. According to John Glen, in 'Early Scottish Melodies' (1900), 'This beautiful song is from the pen of James Thomson (1700-48)'. The Scottish-born poet James Thomson is best remembered for his four-book poem, 'The Seasons' (1726-30), which foreshadowed the Romantic movement in its treatment of the natural world. He is also attributed with writing the words to 'Rule Britannia', from the masque 'Alfred' (1740) which Thomson co-wrote with David Mallet (c.1705-65). As to the tune, Glen thought it 'an excellent one; really Scottish in character, but seemingly modern'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503785

Title

Volume VI, song 590, page 610 - 'Hard is the fate of him who loves' - 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

- 129 x 211 mm