Volume II, song 182, page 190 - 'To Daunton me' - Scanned...
Volume II, song 182, page 190 - 'To Daunton 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: 'The blude red rose at Yule may blaw The simmer lillies bloom in snaw, The frost may freeze the deepest sea, But an auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, And me sae young, Wi' his fause heart and flatt'ring tongue, That is the thing you ne'er shall see, For an auld man shall never daunton me.' The words terrify and subdue are encompassed and conveyed here by the Scots word 'daunton'. 'Fause' is the Scots word for false with the implication of coaxing or cajoling somebody.
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.
Burns wrote that this was an old tune, and it was called ancient by other commentators of the day. Its first written appearance was in 1694 as part of the Atkinson Manuscript, although it had the alternative title, 'This wife of mine'. It also appeared in print under another title, 'Be valient still'. It is thought that this piece eventually influenced a later song, 'Andro and his Cutty Gun'. Burns in his personal notes, has recorded two, older alternative stanza's, which have not been included here.
Volume II, song 182, page 190 - 'To Daunton me' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)