Volume I, song 082, page 83 - 'My Deary, if thou Die' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'Love never more shall give me pain, My fancy's fix'd on thee, Nor ever maid my heart shall gain, my Peggy, if thou die. Thy beauty doth such pleasure give, Thy love's so true to me, Without thee I can never live, my deary if thou die.' 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 tune 'My Deary if thou Die' is contained in the Leyden Manuscript of 1692 and may be the first occasion that it was written down. The fragments of a song called 'my deary, an thou die', are thought to be older and the basis for this song. Robert Burns believed the lyrics to have been written by David Crawford, as he comments in his notes on the song, 'Another beautiful song of Crawford's'. This, however, has never been properly substantiated.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503277

Title

Volume I, song 082, page 83 - 'My Deary, if thou Die' - 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