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Description: | Verse 1: 'Balow, my boy, ly still and sleep; It grieves me sore to hear thee weep: If thou'lt be silent, I'll be glad; Thy mourning makes my heart full sad. Balow, my boy, thy mother's joy, Thy father bred me great annoy, Balow balow, balow, balow, balow, balow, balow, lu lilli lu.' 'Balow' is Scots for hush and 'lillilu' is a lullaby or refrain.
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
The Lady Bothwell of the song was Lady Ann Bothwell, daughter of the Bishop of Orkney. According to Glen (1900), this particular tune appeared in the second edition of William Thomson's 'Orpheus Caledonius' (1733) and in book one of James Oswald's 'Caledonian Pocket Companion', published around 1745. After the publication of Oswald's Companion, the tune did not appear in any Scottish song collections until its inclusion in the second volume of the 'Museum' (1788). | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | National Library of Scotland | Temporal: | 1787-01-01 - 1803-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Volume II, song 130, pages 135 and 136 - | Go to resource |
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