Volume IV, song 324, page 335 - 'Where wad bonie Annie ly'...
Volume IV, song 324, page 335 - 'Where wad bonie Annie ly' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'O where wad bonie Annie ly, Alane nae mair ye mauna ly; Wad ye a goodman try, Is that the thing ye're lacking.' Verse 2: 'O can a lass sae young as I, Venture on the bridal tye Syne down with a goodman ly I'm flee'd he'd keep me wauking. '
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.
Robert Riddell, a close friend of Burns, asked Burns to write a short commentary on the songs he collected in his personal copy of the 'Museum'. Rather than commenting on this song, however, Burns left an alternative verse. The passage reads, 'The old name of this tune is : 'Whare'll our gudeman lie'. A silly old stanza of it runs thus:- 'O, whare'll our gudeman lie, / Gudeman lie, gudeman lie, / O, whare'll gudeman lie, / Till he shute o'er the simmer? / Up amang the hen-bawks, / The hen--bawks, the hen-bawks, / Up amang the hen-bawks / Amang the rotten timmer'.'
Volume IV, song 324, page 335 - 'Where wad bonie Annie ly' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)