Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Wood's edition of the songs of Scotland

THE SONGS (IV SCOTLAND.
29
BLYTHE, BLYTHE, AND MERRY ARE WE.
CON Sl'IRITO.
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AIR, "AXDRO AND HIS CUT) Y GUN.'
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Blythe, blythe, and mer - ry are we, Blythe are we, ane and a';
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Can - ty days we've af - ten seen, A niolit like this we ne-ver saw! The gloam-in' saw
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x' sit down, And mei-kle mirth has been our fa"; Then let the toast and sang gae round Till
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ti - cleer be - gins to craw! Blythe, blythe, and mer - ry are we, Pick and wale 1 o'
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mer-ry men; What care we tho' the cock may craw. We're mas-ters o' the tap - pit - hen! 2
The succeeding verses begin at the sign '.$'.
The auld kirk bell has chappit twal —
Wlia cares though she had chappit twn !
We're licht o' heart and winna part,
Though time and tide may rin awa !
Blythe, blythe, and merry are we —
Hearts that care can never ding ; 3
Then let Time pass — we'll steal his glass,
And pu' a feather frae his wing !
Now is the witchin' time o' nicht,
When ghaists, they say, are to be seen ;
And fays dance to the glow-worm's licht
Wi' fairies in their gowns o' green.
Blythe, blythe, and merry are we —
Ghaists may tak' their midnicht stroll ;
Witches ride on brooms astride,
While we sit by the witchin' bowl !
Tut ! never speir 4 how wears the morn — ■
The moon's still blinkin' i' the sky,
And, gif like her we fill our horn,
I dinna doubt we'll drink it dry !
Blythe, blythe, and merry are we —
Blythe out-owre the barley bree ;
And let me tell, the moon hersel'
Aft dips her toom 5 horn i' the sea !
Then fill us up a social cup,
And never mind the dapple dawn :
Just sit awhile, the sun may smile,
And syne 6 we'll see the gait 7 we're gnun !
Blythe, blythe, and merry are we ;
See ! the sun is keekin' 8 ben ;
Gi'e Time his glass — for months may pass
Ere sic a nicht we see again !
1 Choice.
* Ask, inquire.
2 A measure containing a Scottish pint, that is, two English quarts.
5 Empty. « Then. ' Road, way.
3 Crush, depress
3 Peeping.
" Blythe, blythe, and merry are we." The air is supposed to be old, and sounds very like a bag-pipe tune. It
is now impossible to trace the authorship of our older Scottish airs ; but the Editor is disposed to believe that some
of them may have been composed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The song is by the late Captain Charles Gray, R.M. Two stanzas of it were written for the first anniversary of the
Musomanik Society of Anstruther, 1814. It appeared in the third volume of the " Harp of Caledonia," Glasgow, 1819,
and subsequently in Mr. G. Thomson's " Melodies of Scotland," adapted to a Jacobite air. Its merit having obtained
for it a place in these and many other collections, no apology is necessary for uniting it here to the lively melody in
the very spirit of which it is conceived and written. Captain Gray's "jolly song," (as Mrs. Joanna Baillie called it,)
— differing in some slight degree from that printed in his " Lays and Lyrics" — having received his final corrections,
was published, by his express permission, in the first edition of Wood's " Songs of Scotland," and is here reprinted.