Volume IV, song 344, page 354 - 'Come here's to the nymph that I love' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse I (to the tune of 'Auld Sir Symon the King'): 'Come here's to the nymph that I love! Away ye vain sorrows, away; Far, far from me sorrows, begone; All here shall be pleasant and gay Far hence be the sad and the pensive, Come fill up the glasses around We'll drink till our faces be ruddy, And all our vain sorrows are drown'd.' 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 song is written in the ancient, pastoral tradition of poems such as 'The Passionate Shepherd to His Love', by the English poet, Christopher Marlowe. Certainly, the melody to this song is an old one, with Glen (1900) tracing its first printed appearance back to 1652, in Playford's 'Recreation on the Lyra Viol'. Through the use of imagery and characters from classical mythology, the poem is given a conceited and elevated nature.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503540

Title

Volume IV, song 344, page 354 - 'Come here's to the nymph that I love' - 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

- 132 x 211 mm