Volume II, song 165, page 173 - 'The Ploughman' - Scanned...
Volume II, song 165, page 173 - 'The Ploughman' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'The Ploughman he's a bony lad, His mind is ever true, jo, His garters knit below his knee, His bonnet it is blue, jo.' Chorus: 'Then up wi't a' my Ploughman lad, And hey, my merry Ploughman; Of a' the trades that I do ken, Commend me to the Ploughman.'
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 there is no mention of Robert Burns here, it is possible he collected or revised this particular song for the 'Museum'. The tune, however, is thought to have evolved from the melody 'Sleepy Body', which was published in 1733. It first appeared as 'The Ploughman' in the fourth book of James Oswald's 'Caledonian Pocket Companion' (1752), and was entitled the 'Jolly Plowman' in Robert Bremner's 'Scots Reels or Country Dances' (1761).
Volume II, song 165, page 173 - 'The Ploughman' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)