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

162
THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
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FAKEWELL, THOU STEEAM THAT WINDING FLOWS.
ESfRKSSIVO.
AIR, " NANCY'S 10 THE GREENWOOD QANE.'
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fire in ev - 'ry vein, Nor dare dis - close my an - guish.
Love's veriest wretch, unseen, unknown,
I fain my griefs would cover :
The bursting sigh, the unweeting groan,
Betray the hapless lover.
I know thou doom'st me to despair,
Nor wilt, nor canst relieve me ;
But, oh ! Eliza, hear one prayer —
For pity's sake forgive me.
The music of thy voice I heard,
Nor wist while it enslaved me ;
I saw thine eyes, yet nothing fear'd,
Till fears no more had saved me.
The unwary sailor thus aghast,
The wheeling torrent viewing ;
'Mid circling horrors sinks at last
In overwhelming ruin.
" Farewell, thou stream that winding flows." The words were composed by Burns in November 1794, and
sent to Mi*. George Thomson in a letter, in which the poet notices them thus : — " Now for my English song to ' Nancy's
to the greenwood,' &c." We think that Burns's words suit the character of the air much better than the old humorous
song, by an unknown author, beginning, " There Nancy's to the greenwood gane," published by Allan Eamsay in his
Tea-Table Miscellany, and by Johnson in No. 50 of his Musical Museum. Mr. Stenhouse says, that the old song with
the music appears in the first edition of the Orpheus Caledonius in 1725, and adds : — " Mr. Gay selected this charming
old Scottish air for one of his songs, beginning, 'In war we've nought but death to fear,' in his Musical Opera of
Achilles, pei-formed at Covent-Garden in 1733, after the author's death." We have repeatedly noticed the remarkable
tact of Burns in suiting his songs to the character of the airs for which he wrote them. In this song he seems to have
happily hit the real character of the air, " Nancy's to the greenwood gane." Mr. Stenhouse calls the old words " a
fine old and exquisitely humorous Scottish song." After an attentive examination, we are quite unable to perceive
its " exquisite humour," though it seems sufficiently vulgar.