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Description: | Verse 1: 'Ye gallants bright I red you right, Beware o' bonie Ann; Her comely face sae fu' o' grace, Your heart she will trepan. Her een sae bright, like stars by night, Her skin is like the swan; Sae jimply lac'd her genty waist, That sweetly ye might span.' 'Gallant' is Scots for a flirt or someone who spends a lot of time in the company of the opposite sex and 'red' is to warn or advise. 'Trepan' means to seduce or trick and 'een' is Scots for eyes. Finally, 'jimply' is scarcely or narrowly and 'span' is to grab with both hands.
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.
According to Burns, in his notes on the 'Museum', he composed this song 'out of compliment to Miss Ann Masterton', the daughter of his friend Allan Masterton (d 1799). Masterton composed a number of other airs to accompany songs by Burns, including 'Strathallan's Lament' (song 132) and 'The Braes o' Ballochmyle' (song 276). Interestingly, Johnson has not acknowledged Burns as the author of this particular piece. The 'x' in the bottom right corner of the page was used to highlight original songs 'by different hands'. | 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 215, page 224 - 'Beware | Go to resource |
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