Volume II, song 196, pages 203 and 204 - 'Tibbie, I hae...
Volume II, song 196, pages 203 and 204 - 'Tibbie, I hae seen the day' - 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 'Invercalds Reel'): 'O Tibbie, I hae seen the day, Ye would na been sae shy; For laik o' gear ye lightly me, But trowth, I care na by. Yestreen I met you on the moor, Ye spak na, but gaed by like stoure, Ye geck at me because I'm poor, But fient a hair care I.' Chorus: 'O Tibbie, I hae seen the day, Ye would na been sae shy; For laik o' gear ye lightly me, But trowth I care na by.' The Scots for lack of possessions is 'laik o' gear'. 'Stoure' or 'stour' conveys the idea of bustle and dust in motion. To 'geck' something is to scorn and deride it. The word 'fient' is used to negate an idea and 'trowth' conveys the sense of truly.
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.
This is one of Burns's earliest compositions: he writes in his personal notes, 'this song I composed about the age of seventeen'. The tune 'Invercauld's Reel' is a Strathspey tune which came into popular print during the 1760s. It is, however, unclear who or where it was composed.
Volume II, song 196, pages 203 and 204 - 'Tibbie, I hae seen the day' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)