Volume II, song 174, page 182 - 'Ye gods, was Strephon's picture blest' - 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 '14th of October'): 'Ye gods, was Strephon's picture blest, With the fair heav'n of Chloe's breast! Move softer, thou fond flutt'ring heart, Oh gently throb, too fierce thou art. Tell me, thou brightest of thy kind, For Strephon was the bliss design'd, For Strephon's sake dear charming maid, Didst thou prefer his wand'ring shade?' 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. Strephon, a character from ancient Greek mythology, was a doomed lover and a favourite character in this period's pastoral poetry. Chloe is associated with his lover Chloris, although at this time it had gained associations with renewal and Puritanism. This song has been attributed, in Ramsay's 'Tea-Table Miscellany' (1724-7), to William Hamilton of Bangour, but now it has been suggested that the short hand in this publication merely means that the lyricist and composer were two different people and that the words were a later addition. Burns in his personal notes believed the tune to have been written for the shoemaker's guild. Their patron saint was Crispin and his feast day fell on the 14th of October.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503370

Title

Volume II, song 174, page 182 - 'Ye gods, was Strephon's picture blest' - 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