Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Songs of Scotland > Volume 2

APPENDIX.
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Til December 1V93, Buvns wrote the following Comic Song to be sung to the tune of •' My jo Janet:"
" My spouse,
Husband, Imsbaud, cease your strife,
Nor longer idly rave, Sir ;
I'lio' I am your wedded wife,
Yet I am not your slave, Sir.
One ofttm must still obey,
Nancy, Nancy;
Is it man or woman ? satf.
My spouse, Nancy.
If 'tis still the lordly word,
Service and obedience ;
I'll desert my sovereign lord,
And so goodbye allegiance !
Sad will I be if so bereft,
Nancy, Nancy ;
Yet I'll try to make a shift.
My spouse, Nancy.
Nancy."
My poor heart then break it must,
My last hour I'm near it ;
When you lay me in the dust,
Tliink, think how ye will bear it !
1 will hope and trust in heaxen,
Nancy, Nancy ;
Strength to bear it will be giren,
My spouse, Nancy.
Well, Sir, from the silent dead,
Still I'll try to daunt you ;
Ever round your midnight bed,
Horrid sprites will haunt you.
I'll wed another like my dear
Nancy, Nancy ;
Then all hell will fly for fear.
My spouse, Nancy !
The following is a translation of the air called " Robin and Janet," from No. 13 of the Tablatm-e of the Leydeu
MS. An exact copy of that MS. was presented by the Editor in 1847 to the Library of the Faculty of Advocates,
Edinburgh, for preservation there. At the same time, he presented to that Library a transcript in Tablature of
the Scottish airs contained in the Straloch MS. of 1627-29— the oldest Scottish Musical MS. known to exist.— See
vol. i. of this Work, Introduction, pp. iv. v. : —
" Robin AND Janet." '_ -'< ■
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" Loch-Eroch side." — Pp. 134, 135.
TnK following is Bui-ns' song to that air, referred to in the Note : —
stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay, Say, was thy little mate unkind,
Nor quit for me the trembling spray, And heard thee as the careless wind ?
A hapless lover courts thy lay, Oh, nocht but love and sorrow join'd
Thy soothing fond complaming. Sic notes o' wo could wanken.
Again, again that tender part. Thou teUs o' never-ending care;
That I may catch thy melting art; 0' speechless grief, and dark despair;
For surely that would touch her heart. For pity's sake, sweet bu-d, nae mair !
AVha kills me wi' disdaining. Or my poor heart is broken !
" And 0, POR ane-and-twenty, Tam." — ^Pp. 144, 145.
Captain Gray communicates the following Note: — " A copy of this song, together with the version of ' Logic o'
Buchan,' as it appeared in Johnson's Museum, both in the hand--\vriting of Burns, are now in the pos.session of
Captain Chai-les Gray, R.M. They are written on Excise paper, with priuted red lines."