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Description: | Verse 1: 'Gill Morice was an earle's son, His name it waxed wide, It was na for his great riches, Nor yet his mickle pride; But it was for a lady gay, That liv'd on Carron side.' 'Mickle' means mighty, abundant or great.
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.
Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, a friend of Robert Burns and fellow commentator on the 'Museum', wrote that 'This plaintive ballad ought to have been called 'Child Maurice', and not 'Gill Morice'.' Riddell believed the version in the 'Museum' to be a modern composition, 'perhaps not much above the age of the middle of the last century (seventeenth century)', which had been taken from the old lost ballad of 'Child Maurice'. Riddell further mentions that the tune was composed by William McGibbon, 'the selector of a 'Collection of Scots Tunes''. | 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 III, song 203, page 212 - 'Gill M | Go to resource |
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