Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed music > Songs of Scotland prior to Burns

124 SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
I hae a but, and I hae a ben —
Lass, gin ye lo'e me, tell me now ;
A penny to keep, and a penny to spen',
And I carina come ilka day to woo :
1 hae a ben wi' a happitie-leg —
Lass, gin ye lo'e me, tell me now ;
Tbat ilka day lays me an egg,
And I canna come ilka day to woo :
I bae a cheese upon my skelf —
Lass, gin ye lo'e me, tell me now ;
And soon wi' mites 'twill rin itself,
And I canna come ilka day to woo.
It may be remarked, that the air of I hae laid a SerritH in
Saiit, as usually sung in Scotland, is a quick and lively one. As
is not uncommon, however, it is susceptible of great tenderness
when played slow. Burns's pretty pastoral song, The Bonnie
Blinks of Mary's Ee, has been of late years sung to this tune in
slow time. 1
DONALD COUPER.
We get a very decisive example of the homely simplicity and
rustic baldness of the early popvdar music of Scotland, in an
undoubted favourite lively air of at least the age of the Common-
wealth — namely, Donald Cowper — which has been preserved in
Playford's Dancing Master, published in 1657. That it was
a dancing tune in general esteem then and in the reign of
Charles II. is proved, first, by its being thus admitted into a
contemporary English collection ; and, secondly, by an allusion
to it in Cleland's poem on the Highland Host, circa 1679 :
' Trumpets sounded, skenes were glancing,
Some were Donald Couper dancing.'
Nor did this wide popularity soon cease, for in Durfey's Pills to
1 See Wood's Songs of Scotland, ii. 120.