Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed music > Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate melodies > Volume 1

PUIRTITH CAULD.
107
^
*3ZB
m
: F=H 5=
P=^^
gg^E
ft!
twin - ing ? Or why sae sweet a
flower as love Do - pend on For - tune's
fe
BE
^^
PS
3=B
s
Bid*
g^
:s
f
r
1E1
This world's wealth when I think on,
Its pride, an' a' the lave 2 o't ;
Fie, fie on silly coward man,
That he should be the slave o't.
0, why should fate, &c.
Her een, sae bonnieblue, betray
How she repays my passion ;
But prudence is her owerword 8 aye,
She talks of rank an' fashion.
0, why should fate, &c.
0, wha can prudence think upon,
An' sic a lassie by him ?
0, wha can prudence think upon,
An' sae in love as I am ?
0, why should fate, &c.
How blest the humble cottar's fate !
He woos his simple dearie ;
The silly bogles, 4 wealth an' state,
Can never make them eerie. 6
0, why should fate, &c.
1 Poverty. s Rest, remainder. 3 Any word frequently repeated in conversation or otherwise. 4 Scarecrow, bugbear.
6 Affrighted ; affected with fear from whatever cause ; but generally applied to the feeling inspired by the dread of ghosts or spirits.
" 0, puibtith cauld, and restless love." This charming song was written by Burns, and sent to Mr. George
Thomson in January 1793. It was adapted to the air given to the comic song " I had a horse, an' I had nae mair,"
No. 185 of Johnson's Museum. Burns, with his usual tact and musical perception, seized upon the true character
of that beautiful air, which is plaintive, and by no means adapted to a comic song. The air appears to be of con-
siderable antiquity. Like several other old Scottish melodies, it begins in a major key, and ends in the nearest
relative minor.
Mr. Robert Chambers, in his Scottish Songs, (1829,) says, " I have been informed that Burns wrote this song
in consequence of hearing a gentleman (now a respectable citizen of Edinburgh) sing the old homely ditty which
gives name to the tune, with an effect which made him regret that such pathetic music should be united to 6uch
unsentimental poetry. The meeting, I have been further informed, where this circumstance took place, was held
in Johnnie Dowie's, in the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh ; and there, at a subsequent meeting, the new song was also
sung, for the first time, by the same individual."