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

THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
WAE'S ME FOR PRINCE CHARLIE.
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AIR. "THE CYPSIE LADDIE."
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A wee bird cam' to our ha' door, He war - bled sweet an'
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clear - ly, An' aye the o'er -come o' his sang Was"Wa'esme for Prince Char-lie!" Oh!
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when I heard the bon - nie, bon - nie bird, The tears cam' drap - pin' rare - ly, I
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took my bon - net aff my liead, For weel I lo'ed Prince Char - lie.
Quoth I, " My bird, my bonnie, bonnie bird,
Is that a sang ye borrow,
Are these some words ye've learnt by heart,
Or a lilt 1 o' dool and sorrow?"
" Oh ! no, no, no," the wee bird sang,
" I've flown sin' mornin' early,
But sic a day o' wind an' rain —
Oh! wae's me for Prince Charlie !
" On hills that are, by right, his ain,
He roves a lanely stranger,
On every side he's press'd by want,
On every side is danger ;
Yestreen I met him in a glen.
My heart maist burstit fairly,
For sadly changed indeed was he —
Oh ! wae's me for Prince Charlie !
" Dark night cam' on, the tempest roar'd
Loud o'er the hills an' valleys,
An' where was't that yonr Prince lay down,
Wha's hame should been a palace?
He row'd him in a Highland plaid,
Which cover'd him but sparely,
An' slept beneath a bush o' broom —
Oh ! wae's me for Prince Charlie !"
But now the bird saw some red coats,
An' he shook his wings wi' anger,
" Oh ! this is no a land for me;
I'll tarry here nae langer !"
He hover'd on the wing a while
Ere he departed iairly,
But weel I mind the farewcel strain
Was, " Wae's me for Prince Charlie !"
1 Lilt — tune.
" Wae's me foe Prince Charlie." James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, in his Second Series of Jacobite Relics,
pp. 192, 193, gives this song, and the air, " The Gypsie Laddie." He ascribes the words to " a Mr. William Glen,
about Glasgow." It appears that this William Glen was a native of Glasgow, and for some time a manufacturer
there, and that he died about 1824, in a state of poverty. He was the author of several other songs and poems.
The air is given in Johnson's Museum, No. 181, under the title of "Johnny Faa, or the Gypsie Laddie," to the
words of an old ballad beginning, " The gypsies cam' to our Lord's yett." On this Burns observes, that it is the
only old song which he could ever trace as belonging to the extensive county of Ayr. This song is said to have
been founded on a romantic adventure in an old Scottish family. Mr. Stenhouse, in his Note upon the song, (vol.
ii. p. 175 of Museum,) gives a traditional history of the ballad. Mr. Finlay, in his " Scottish Ballads," Mr. William
Dauney, in his "Ancient Melodies of Scotland," and Captain Charles Gray, R.M., in his "Cursory Remarks on
Scottish Song," all treat the story of Lady Cassillis' elopement as a malicious fiction, and produce proofs of its
falsehood. The date of the air is not known, but it appears in the Skene MS. under the name of " Ladie Cassilles
Lilt ;" though the set there given has undergone considerable changes in the hands of modern editors, especially in
the second strain.