Volume II, song 129, page 135 - 'Stay, my Charmer, can you...
Volume II, song 129, page 135 - 'Stay, my Charmer, can you leave me' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1 (to the tune of 'An Gille dubh ciar dhubh'): 'Stay, my charmer, can you leave me? Cruel, cruel to deceive me! Well you know how much you grieve me: Cruel charmer, can you go. Cruel charmer, can you go!' The title of the tune is in Gaelic and translates as 'The dark swarthy lad'.
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.
Although it is accepted that Burns wrote this song, there appears to be some doubt over the origins of the tune. Glen (1900) disputes the claim, in Allan Cunningham's (1784-1842) edition of 'Burns's Songs and Ballads', that Burns acquired this air 'in the north'. Glen's doubts are well founded and based upon the fact 'that the Rev. Patrick McDonald included the tune in his Collection of Highland Vocal Airs, etc., which he published in 1784 - more than three years previous to Burns's first Highland tour'.
Volume II, song 129, page 135 - 'Stay, my Charmer, can you leave me' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)