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Description: | Verse 1: 'As walking forth to view the plain, Upon a morning early, While May's sweet scent did chear my brain, From flow'rs which grew so rarely; I chanc'd to meet a pretty maid, She shin'd tho' it was foggy: I ask'd her name, Sweet Sir, she said, My name is Katharine Ogie.'
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.
Unlike many of the other songs and tunes featured in the 'Museum' there is little written about 'Katharine Ogie'. Both Burns and Robert Riddell of Glenriddell wrote notes on an interleaved copy of the 'Museum', which provided an interesting insight into the history of some of the songs and tunes. Sadly, in this instance they had nothing to add. Whilst many of the characters that people the songs in the 'Museum' are from Greek mythology, this song may have been inspired by a real person. | 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 164, pages 171 and 172 - | Go to resource |
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