Volume IV, song 322, pages 332 and 333 - 'If e'er I do well...
Volume IV, song 322, pages 332 and 333 - 'If e'er I do well 'tis a wonder' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'When I was a young lad, My fortune was bad if e'er I do well 'tis a wonder I spent all my means On whores, bawds, and queans; Then I got a commission to plunder I spent all my means on whores, bawds, and queans; Then I got a commission to plunder.'
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 composition was first printed in James Oswald's, 'The Curious Collection of Scots Tunes', in 1740. Despite the racy and risquǸ nature of the content, this song, when first published, was dedicated to the Duke of Perth. Whether this was a reflection of his reputation or not is still open to debate. The Dukedom of Perth was still a fairly new title in the 1740s although the Earldom of Perth had a long established history in the Drummond family. The Dukedom was, however, short-lived. The Drummonds were staunch Jacobites and so after 1745 the title was attainted and therefore remained dormant.
Volume IV, song 322, pages 332 and 333 - 'If e'er I do well 'tis a wonder' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)